• Walter 'Fritz" Mondale, the longtime US Senator from Minnesota who became Jimmy Carter's vice president and then lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan in a 1984 landslide, has passed away. He was 93.
The general consensus is that Mondale - who later in his career served as US ambassador to Japan during the Clinton administration - changed the nature of the office of the vice presidency, making it far more active than in previous administrations. He also broke new ground when, in 1984, he named Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as his running mate, making her the first woman to run on a major-party presidential ticket.
