The very first presidential election I was eligible to vote in was in November of 1984, six months after my high school graduation. Needless to say, I voted for Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman ever to make it on to a national presidential ticket.
Though Walter Mondale has largely faded into the proverbial woodwork of vice presidential history, he still has a valuable message to share about the power of the executive office, namely Dick Cheney's abuse of the power of the vice presidency.
Mondale points out that the vice president essentially has no constitutional powers, and any power which he attains must be granted by the president. So all the obstruction and secrecy and lack of accountability that Cheney acts as if he's entitled to, is actually bogus. A smokescreen. He's bluffing. There is no one behind the curtain except George Bush, allowing it to happen.
As much as I'd like to assign Cheney with his special set of moral problems, it's really just another sign of how dangerously off course Bush has allowed this country to veer. And proof that history repeats itself over and over again.
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