Pretty sharp for 80

I have been surprised. I have been amused. I have been fascinated. I have been pissed off and offended and a little too well acquainted with the organization of the Anchorage Daily News. I have been through the stages of Palin. By rights it shouldn't be over, as tonight's her big speech and the frenzy's just really beginning. But today I really, really, really need this headache to go away, and thus I'm checking out of that bizarre-o world and instead offering up the voice of reason:

Walter Mondale on Sarah Palin

By David E. Sanger

MINNEAPOLIS – Walter Mondale has only one official title these days: Honorary Norwegian counsel-general here in his home town, a post that he owes to his heritage.

But as a former senator, former vice president, and, of course, the first presidential candidate to select a woman as his running mate, Mr. Mondale was brimming over on Wednesday morning with a few thoughts about Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who is scheduled to accept her nomination as vice president this evening.

“There’s nothing a presidential candidate does that remotely compares in importance to picking the vice president,’’ the 80-year old Mr. Mondale told a visitor to his law office high above the Mississippi River here. “And you have to be ready to answer a few questions about whoever you pick.’’

With a twinkle in his eye, the old Democratic pol added, “I’d like to hear McCain answer these.’’

The first, he said, is: “Is she ready for the presidency? And how does she strengthen the President? Because you know, there are some tricks to this job.’’

Whether Republicans or Democrats win in November, he said “there will be messes on the Hill. And that’s what I did a lot of as vice president,’’ he said. “I spent a lot of time cleaning up messes on the Hill.’’

The second is to act as an early-warning radar for brewing problems – which means having deep connections in the government, with people honest enough to say things they might not say to the president. Ms. Palin, he said, “seems like a lovely person’’ but is so detached from Washington that she is unlikely to serve in that role.

The third, he said, is to “extend the president’s power abroad.’’ When he was vice president to Jimmy Carter, he noted, he spent a lot of time in the Middle East, and dealing with the Chinese. (Under President Clinton, he came back to government to serve as ambassador to Japan, and he played a significant behind-the-scenes role managing the first nuclear crisis with North Korea, in 1994.)

Dick Cheney, he said, “took the vice presidency off the rails.’’ But, he added, at least he is in Georgia today, bearing a billion dollars in aid for Georgia in the wake of the Russian invasion last week. He suggested that Ms. Palin might not be quite ready for that role, even if, as an Alaskan, she is accustomed to living on the borders of Russia.

Then there’s the unglamorous part of the job, he said. “Remember, the vice president is the only other officer of the government without a bureaucratic constituency. You have to be able to hear out all sides, and know how what you’re hearing is being affected’’ as members of the cabinet maneuver for more budget, or more authority.

Ever since the announcement of Ms. Palin’s selection on Friday, there have been endless comparisons to Geraldine Ferraro, the congresswoman that Mr. Mondale chose as his running mate 24 years ago – only to discover that there were a few questions that should have been asked earlier, mostly about her husband’s willingness to let the world see his financial dealings.

Mr. Mondale argued that his staff had vetted Ms. Ferraro “for probably three weeks’’ before he announced her selection. “She was a known quantity,’’ he said. “She had been a leader in the House. I had known her for a long time.’’

While Mr. McCain surrounded his choice in nearly obssessive secrecy, Mr. Mondale recalled that “we deliberately leaked almost every name we were considering.’’ The reason, he said, was to “find out ahead of time if there’s anything we might want to know.’’

Still, Mr. Mondale was in for a surprise: Ms. Ferraro’s husband balked at releasing tax returns that would expose his financial dealings. That drama played out for weeks, he recalled, ending in a press conference “where she answered questions until everyone was exhausted. But the damage was done. “We lost momentum,’’ he said.

He also lost the election.