No. 2 Made His Points

Far from being a mere appendage to the winning ticket, Walter Frederick Mondale turned out to be a considerable asset. With unflagging energy and unfailing good humor--even when his staff steered him to factory gates after shifts had changed--Mondale effectively worked the northern tier of the U.S. His assignment was to build bridges between Jimmy Carter and the sizable Democratic blocs that did not know the Georgian well: ethnics, labor, liberals.

Mondale pursued his assignment doggedly--and with more zest than he had shown in his own earlier aborted presidential quest. He improved on a previously humdrum speaking technique, lacing his talks with self-deprecating humor. In the end, newsmen voted his the happiest of the presidential and vice-presidential campaigns. Parodying an oft-repeated line from Mondale's speeches, "We want jobs --not hot air," reporters presented Mondale with a T shirt labeled WE WANT NEWS--NOT HOT AIR. He donned it at the end of an Election Day program that took him from tiny (pop. 2,000) Afton, Minn., where he voted, to his dentist for a checkup, and a tour of a museum.

After the results were in, some political analysts went so far as to speculate that Fritz Mondale had been the difference between victory and defeat for the Carter ticket. "The best decision that Jimmy made about the whole campaign was picking Fritz Mondale as his running mate," said Democratic National Chairman Robert Strauss. Carter Adviser Hamilton Jordan told TIME Correspondent John Stacks that Mondale had indeed proved valuable, particularly after his strong showing in the precedent-setting vice-presidential debate with Republican Robert Dole. Said Jordan of the debate: "It gave us two or three extra points, a huge impact. A number of people saw Ford and Carter and thought 'What the hell!' But then we raised the vice-presidential issue, and it was decisive with a large number of people. It was a big, big plus for us." An NBC News poll following the debate showed 51% of respondents in favor of Mondale as Vice President, v. only 33% who considered Dole more helpful to his presidential candidate (see chart).

At 48, Mondale becomes a leading candidate to succeed Carter; no fewer than 13 Vice Presidents have moved up to the White House. The title of heir presumptive is a traditional one for Vice Presidents; even Spiro Agnew in the wake of the Nixon landslide of '72 was so regarded. Mondale has a more substantial claim to the title than many of his predecessors. Only two years ago he abandoned his own presidential ambitions because, he joked, in straw votes he was running behind even "don't know." Now he has a national constituency. He was unfamiliar to most voters before the Democratic Convention. But in the debate with Dole, Mondale came across as "presidential" in bearing --if a bit wooden.

Recent Vice Presidents have dutifully promised to bring meaning to the job. None have really succeeded. Even so, the role, with its perks and possibilities, is an attractive one: Hubert Humphrey confided to Mondale that without Viet Nam to haunt the Administration he would have relished the job of L.B.J.'s Vice President.

Mondale, on the basis of his campaign showing, is in a strong position to hold Carter to a promise to give his Vice President consequential assignments. One possibility: to act as liaison between the Congress, where Mondale has served for twelve years, and a President who knows little about the people and peculiarities of Capitol Hill.

Mondale is a man without large ego problems, which will help. But he does have demands. "I want to be 'in the loop,' " the Vice President-elect told TIME. "I'll be a member of the National Security Council and other statutory groups, of course, but I'd like to consult privately on economics, to have private input on the selection of personnel. I will be very helpful on certain issues. I'd like to work on Government reorganization; I don't think you can effectively reorganize the Executive Branch without reorganizing Congress, and that's going to be hard. I feel I could play a role."

Mondale insists, however, that he does not want a place in Carter's Executive Branch chain of command. "I don't want to be a substitute for the President," he says. "Uncertainty of leadership is devastating. If I can spend my time advising on central issues, I think I could be more helpful than in an operating role." Mondale has not worked out the specifics of his new assignment. "That's the next campaign," he says with a chuckle.

So far, at least, Mondale has worked smoothly with his leader. "In every conversation we have had, we got along beautifully," he said. "We complement each other." During the campaign, he maintained regular contact with Carter as his jetliner "Minnesota Fritz" carried him on a 54,000-mile caravan through 31 states and 122 cities. The hookup was mostly advisory; Mondale had to clear a speech on judicial reform, but mostly was allowed to air his own views on such issues as Watergate and Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon.

Mondale expects that relationship to continue--though he is well aware that antagonism and jealousy frequently grow up between the staffs of a President and his No. 2 man. "If Carter and I have good relations," he predicts, "the staff problems will take care of themselves. And if we don't, there is no remedy, even at the staff level." Mondale himself is working diligently--perhaps too much so--to make the relationship solid. Addressing an Election Night crowd, the Vice President-elect described Carter as "one of the greatest men in American history."

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