Written by: Beck

Walter Mondale is now being interviewed by Jim Lehrer. Perhaps this will be interesting.

They're calling him out on his crappy 1984 acceptance speech.

Mondale: "I went through a process... you start getting advice... you take polls... you start writing drafts... you have a conversation with yourself... it sort of liberated me... that's when I said, 'Well, we're going to have to raise taxes.'" It's not easy to shoot yourself in the foot with a torpedo of that size. But Mondale pulled it off.

Lehrer: "Do you regret [saying you would raise taxes]?" Mondale: "I'm really glad I did it."

Mondale: "This is the most important night for Kerry, the first debate possibly being of equal importance."

Mondale: "He has connected [with voters] but not enough. It's a gap that Bush is somewhat forfeiting, but Kerry has not yet filled it." I agree. Bush has abandoned much of the middle to secure his base--take the effort behind the FMA. Frankly, the moderate and undecided vote is Kerry's to lose. And he's doing a damn good job of losing it.

Brooks: "All the attention on one person... what's that pressure like?"

Mondale: "This is it. You can't hide it if you fail, and you love it if you succeed." And that about sums it up. This is Kerry's to win or lose, the ball is most certainly in his court.

Money quote from Mondale, "Well, recall, I was running against Ronald Reagain in 1984, which was a very foolish thing to do in the first place."