The Minnesota Republican Party prepared

The Minnesota Republican Party prepared an anti-Mondale TV ad that apparently was quite hard-hitting. It showed Mondale with Carter and reminded voters of 21% interest and home mortgage rates, 10% unemployment, and hostages held in Iran. It was intended mainly, I suppose, to remind voters who know Mondale’s name but have forgotten the details of his career, how disastrous it was. At the eleventh hour, however, the party pulled the ad. It apparently will never see the light of day. We are trying to determine whether this decision was based on fear of a backlash against “negative campaigning”–it’s always negative campaigning when you remind voters about a Democrat’s record in office–or whether the party believes that the reaction to the Wellstone pep rally, together with Mondale’s anticipated participation in a debate, will carry Coleman to victory without having to “go negative.” Whatever the party’s reasoning was, I hope they’re right. It would be very painful if Mondale were to be elected to the Senate without an effort being made to remind voters that when he was active in public life twenty to thirty years ago, he was wrong on every major issue of the time.
And, since I posted a photo of Norm Coleman below, here is one of Mondale, campaiging with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Roger Moe. Note the Wellstone signs and buttons.