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SPEAKER 1: --above today. Tonight, partly cloudy. Low is around 5 below. Saturday, partly cloudy. High is only about 15, but that is significantly warmer than today. Saturday night, not as cold, mostly cloudy, slight chance of snow in the evening, And then a slight chance of freezing rain and snow after midnight. Low is around 10 above. Sunday, not as cold, cloudy with a 50% chance of snow. High is around 30. It's 11:00.

[THEME MUSIC]

GARY EICHTEN: And good morning, I'm Gary Eichten, inviting you to stay tuned for "Midday" here on Minnesota Public Radio News. Coming up this first hour, former Vice President Walter Mondale. Walter Mondale was our guest on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater last night. And we'll listen back to that event right after the news.

LAKSHMI SINGH: From MPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Fans are remembering the soulful voice of Etta James. The legendary singer has died at the age of 73 in Southern California. Her agent says, James passed away from complications of leukemia. MPR's Sami Yenigun has this tribute.

SAMI YENIGUN: Nobody sings a love song like Etta James.

[ETTA JAMES, "AT LAST"] At last

My love has come along

SAMI YENIGUN: Though she'll be best remembered for this iconic ballad, "At Last," she began as a gospel singer. Born James Etta Hawkins, the California native signed to Chicago's Chess Records in 1960, where she recorded her first album. Over the course of a half century, the Grammy-winning contralto became one of the most celebrated voices in America. Though she was plagued by years of drug addiction and legal troubles, she influenced artists ranging from the Rolling Stones to Beyoncé Knowles. Sami Yenigun, MPR News.

LAKSHMI SINGH: The scheduled April primaries in Texas are running into more complications. The Supreme Court has thrown out electoral maps drawn by federal judges in Texas that favored minorities and ordered them to try again. Protesters in more than 100 cities across the country are planning to occupy the courts. They want to protest the Supreme Court's decision two years ago that removed most limits on corporate and labor spending in federal elections. MPR's Peter Overby reports, the ruling upended the campaign finance laws and spawned the heavily funded groups known as super PACs.

PETER OVERBY: Protests are expected today at the Supreme Court and at least 100 other federal courthouses around the country. Marge Baker is executive vice president of People for the American Way, one of the organizing groups. She says, they feel that a long term movement is taking root.

MARGE BAKER: It's both the excesses of Citizens United becoming more apparent, people really being afraid that they are losing our democracy.

PETER OVERBY: A large coalition of groups, good government, liberal, and environmental is behind the effort. Their eventual goal is a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United and limit corporate money in politics. Peter Overby, MPR News, Washington.

LAKSHMI SINGH: The four remaining Republican presidential candidates are reaching out to South Carolinians on the eve of the primary in that state. Frontrunner Mitt Romney is struggling to hold on to his lead in a state where the winner has traditionally gone on to win the GOP nomination. Polls show Newt Gingrich gaining momentum.

But in his quest to rally conservative and evangelical votes, Gingrich also faces new questions about fidelity after his ex-wife claimed the candidate wanted to have an open marriage. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was up 52 points at 12,676, NASDAQ, down 7 points at 2782. You're listening to MPR News.

SPEAKER 2: Support for news comes from Cabot Creamery Cooperative, five generations of New England and New York farm families working together to produce naturally aged, traditional Vermont cheddar cheese.

PHIL PICARDI: From Minnesota Public Radio News, I'm Phil Picardi. Lawyers, consultants, and other Republican Party insiders benefited as the party's debt increased. Finance reports dating back to 2007 show more than $1 million in GOP payouts to a law firm and more than $270,000 to a communications firm. Former party chairman Tony Sutton blamed the debt on a slowdown in party fundraising. He resigned last month.

The Minnesota Orchestra will hold its popular Summer Fest program at Ted Mann Concert Hall at the U of M this year. It's a temporary move as work begins on the expansion of Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Orchestra general manager Bob Neu says, in addition to Ted Mann's excellent acoustics, there's a large open space behind the Hall.

BOB NEU: And that's where we're going to have live music before the concerts, the food items available, just as we do downtown. Now, it'll probably be a little bit of a scaled-back version because it's not quite the space that Peavey Plaza is, just as far as amount of space. But it still enables us to do that and be able to celebrate the summer.

PHIL PICARDI: Summer Fest runs for three weeks in July. The Minnesota Orchestra will use the Minneapolis Convention Center as its home during the 2012-2013 regular season. The family of a Wisconsin teenager killed in a crash with a La Crosse County Sheriff's Deputy has settled a negligence claim. A county attorney says the parents of 16-year-old Brandon Jennings will receive about $525,000 as a settlement in his death.

The teen died in 2010 in a collision with a squad car driven by former deputy Trisha Stratman. She went through a red light at about 90 miles per hour while responding to an emergency. A jury in November acquitted her of wrongdoing in Jennings' death. Light snow, 5 degrees in the Twin Cities. It's MPR News.

[THEME MUSIC]

GARY EICHTEN: Good morning. And welcome to a special edition of "Midday" on Minnesota Public Radio News, special for me at least. This is my last program as host of "Midday" and my final program before I retire. Now we'll have a chance to talk about some of that over the noon hour. But this hour, we're going to hear from Minnesota's senior statesman, former Vice President Walter Mondale, Walter Mondale on presidents that he's known, Walter Mondale on politics and policy, Walter Mondale on an agenda for the future.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale was our guest last night at a farewell event held at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul. And during this hour, we're going to hear some wisdom and wit from Mr. Mondale, a man with one of the most impressive public service resumes, certainly in Minnesota history, probably in American history.

Walter Mondale helped start the Minnesota DFL party. He served as Minnesota Attorney General. He served 12 years representing Minnesota in the US Senate. He served as Vice President of the United States from 1976 to 1980. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 1984. He was US ambassador to Japan in the 1990s.

Just days before the 2002 election, he replaced Senator Paul Wellstone on the ballot when Senator Wellstone died in that plane crash. And Walter Mondale remains active in public life to this day. Among other things, he's still teaching at the University of Minnesota. This hour is a special treat, former Vice President Walter Mondale on stage last night at the Fitzgerald Theater. Mr. Mondale, thanks for joining us.

WALTER MONDALE: I am very glad to be here tonight. We've got a packed Fitzgerald Theater. And we're all here tonight to honor you and your leadership in our state and our region, one of the great newsmen in our history. And we're delighted to be with you.

GARY EICHTEN: Thank you, sir.

[APPLAUSE]

Actually, Mr. Mondale, not to take offense, but we're here to grill you. Just kidding.

WALTER MONDALE: We may talk about you a little bit, too.

GARY EICHTEN: So if you would, first of all, put your political analyst hat on. We have a big primary down in South Carolina on Saturday. And at the start of this week, the thought was, Mitt Romney probably will win. And that will be the end of the Republican process, the Republican nomination process. Now there's talk that Newt Gingrich might win. What's your best estimate?

WALTER MONDALE: This is off the record, but I don't know.

GARY EICHTEN: Just between the two of us here.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah, yeah. I watch it, I guess, like everyone does. I thought a week ago that Romney would run away with it. But it now looks like it's closing or closed. And this contest may go on for more, next to Florida and so on. It'd be here in Minnesota, I think, in a few weeks.

GARY EICHTEN: Right.

WALTER MONDALE: So we may not know for a while who the clear nominee is going to be. They're not asking me for advice.

GARY EICHTEN: What's that like now if you're a Mitt Romney? Because in 1984, you were the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. But you had quite a field of challengers kind of nipping at your heels. What's that like?

WALTER MONDALE: It's challenging, as you said. We had, I think, nine people running for president, people like John Glenn that was formidable. And the first debates, like the ones you watched with the Republicans, it's like nine people standing there, each getting about two minutes, trying to make something out of their position. And then as they start falling away, getting down to four and then three, the ones that are behind-- and I was the head at that time-- want to find some way of tearing you down.

And I remember, we had a debate in New Hampshire, League of Women Voters debate. And I asked the parliamentarian before the debate started. I said, now, every one of the people in this platform are going to go after me tonight because that's what they did last night. I said, do I get equal time for each attack? He said, well, let's see how it works out. And that's what happened.

So I think if I can just make one point, I think these debates, as tiresome as they are, serve a very important purpose in selecting nominees for the highest office in the world. It shouldn't be easy to get there. These issues should be ventilated. They should have to show, repeatedly and under pressure, controversy, their capacity to handle matters and lead and so on. And it's our way of trying to sort it out. And as slow and as painful as it is, I think it's a legitimate process.

GARY EICHTEN: Do you get the bug, Mr. Mondale, when campaign season rolls around, do you feel like maybe I should be running for something?

WALTER MONDALE: And then I remember what happened the last time, I thought. Yeah. So I think I may be cured. I'm not sure.

GARY EICHTEN: Are there any qualities that a good president should have, must have, or any qualities that all the best presidents have shared? Or does it vary from person to person?

WALTER MONDALE: Well, I think the details are different. I think the fundamentals of a strong presidency are quite obvious. It has to be a person of great ability. The range of problems, you have to be a person who can decide things under pressure and do so effectively. You have to be able to communicate at all times in different environments, in ways that the public finds persuasive.

I believe you need to be honest. I believe if you're not, you're going to pay a price. We'll all pay a price. And I think you have to go into that Office with some deep beliefs about what you want to do. I don't think you can just sit there and wait for problems to go by. I think you have to have some deep commitments that mean everything to you and try to steer your presidency and the country in that direction.

And then I think, yeah, I believe we should have a look for people with a Democratic personality-- I don't mean small d-- people that are temperamentally willing and anxious to listen and learn and respond, in other words, people that help make a democracy prosper. I think the great presidents that we've had-- Lincoln was the greatest by all odds-- I think they all had these qualities.

GARY EICHTEN: Can we go down the list of presidents who have served, say, in the last 50 years, all of whom you've had some contact with one way or the other? Give us a little thumbnail sketch, first impressions. Let's start with John Kennedy.

WALTER MONDALE: Well, he was the inspiration for our generation. I was the manager of his campaign. I was working with Nick Coleman the day he was shot. And I don't think I'll ever get over it. For our age at that time, I don't think any of us will ever forget his leadership. Regrettably, he wasn't given enough time to prove it all.

GARY EICHTEN: LBJ.

WALTER MONDALE: A mixed figure. If you look at a president committed to civil rights and to mercy and opportunity for the disadvantaged, next to Lincoln, he was America's greatest president. But if you look at the war and his inability to avoid obsessing on it and finding an end to it, it almost ruined, I would say, it ruined his presidency, and it badly damaged his public reputation.

GARY EICHTEN: Richard Nixon.

WALTER MONDALE: A gifted man, brilliant, kind of looks moderate today. But he had emotional problems. He was insecure. He easily saw enemies, not just opponents. And he was only comfortable if he could destroy them in some way. And this obsession of his, I think, also ruined his presidency. And he was the only president in American history who had to resign in disgrace.

GARY EICHTEN: Gerald Ford.

WALTER MONDALE: A wonderful, kind man. I came to know him better after we were both out of office. He was trying to heal the country after Watergate. And even though he didn't win-- and I had something to do with that-- he has to go down as really a kind and decent president.

GARY EICHTEN: Jimmy Carter, who, of course, you served with.

WALTER MONDALE: I think one of the truly, most truly underestimated fine men to occupy the presidency, brilliant, devoted to his country, with a desire to solve problems. He resisted the pressure of pressure groups, political parties. He looked at himself as a trustee of the public interest. And he, I think more than most presidents, called them the way he thought was right. And I love the guy. And Joan, who's here with us tonight, we had a wonderful time with President Carter and Rosalynn.

GARY EICHTEN: Ronald Reagan, who you didn't have such a good time with in 1984.

WALTER MONDALE: Well, that campaign was not nasty. We got through it both. He never said a mean word. I didn't say a mean word. We had our debates. I was, just between us, again, not impressed by the depth of some of his thinking. But he imagined a lot of things to have happened that no one else remembers.

But he was a very successful president. And people liked him. They loved his manner, his pleasant and kind way of dealing with issues. Even Tip O'Neill and the people in the Congress had dealt with him. They were friends. And so I think we didn't go where I wanted to go, but those were good years.

GARY EICHTEN: We will continue the parade here in a moment. But I have to stop and point out, to my way of thinking, that one of the best lines in all of political history, Mr. Mondale's comment about Ronald Reagan, "He was selling morning in America, and I was selling a root canal."

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

GARY EICHTEN: Ouch. Just classic. All right, here we go. George H.W. Bush.

WALTER MONDALE: Able, deeply experienced, last of the moderate Republicans, shunned in part by the growing part of his political party that wanted a more hardover leadership.

GARY EICHTEN: Bill Clinton.

WALTER MONDALE: Truly gifted, old, dear friend of mine. I think he goes down as a very good president. He had a feeling for people. He was a president that served justice, one of the smartest men, I think, I've ever met. Don't tell him anything you want forgotten. He and Hillary made a strong team. There were some blemishes in his administration that he'll always pay a price for.

GARY EICHTEN: George W. Bush.

WALTER MONDALE: Oh, yes.

GARY EICHTEN: George W. Bush. Yeah.

WALTER MONDALE: Well, I think that there were two George W. Bush's administration. The first, say, five years when he was really sort of cocky, and I don't think thinking things through, and he was going to be this visceral, manly president. And we had harsh arguments at home. And we got into some wars abroad that I don't think we'll ever make sense if we try to look at it honestly.

The last couple of years, and this hasn't been talked about much, I think he started to see that he'd been listening to some of the wrong people, that some of what he was doing had to be changed. He put Bill Gates in at defense and took Rumsfeld out. I think that Cheney--

GARY EICHTEN: Bob.

WALTER MONDALE: Pardon me. Pardon me. Yeah. And I think he and he was starting to change some of his policies in what I thought was a better way. So a mixed presidency, I would say.

GARY EICHTEN: Barack Obama came in three years ago, almost to the day here, maybe to the day, and high expectations. What's your estimate?

WALTER MONDALE: Brilliant. I think a very good president. He started out green because a lot of presidents do. He had this idea at first that he could remain separate from the Congress. And I don't think that worked even though a lot of things got done. His time of testing is now. I think he knows that. I think that he's better under pressure. And I expect to see a lot of good leadership here this next year.

GARY EICHTEN: Do you suppose that a Minnesotan will ever be elected president? Well, I mean, Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic nominee. You were the nominee. There were several other political figures who were in the mix. Two more ran this last year on the Republican side came up short. Will any Minnesotan ever get elected president?

WALTER MONDALE: You forgot Harold Stassen.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, I kind of put him in there too.

WALTER MONDALE: He would be shocked to hear that. For a while, I used to say that the Constitution of Minnesota requires a Minnesotan to run every presidential election. And, boy, we really tried.

GARY EICHTEN: Double up some years in case you come up short another one.

WALTER MONDALE: Right. And Humphrey came the closest. He came within a sliver of being president. Wellstone ran, remember, once? And we had two candidates this time. And I predict there will be some more candidates. We come from the best state in the Union.

[APPLAUSE]

There's some also-ran next to us here. But we have good politics and, I think, honest politics. And I think it's good training for the presidency and the White House. And I hope we do have others trying to lead.

GARY EICHTEN: Now, you were saying earlier, one of the qualities of a top president would be a firm understanding of who they are, what they believe, and a willingness to really stick to those principles, to those ideals. But of course, at some point, to get anything done, you have to compromise. How does a good president find that balance?

WALTER MONDALE: Well, that's the toughest part of the job. You've got to be an assertive leader. You have to make that case in a strong, direct, sometimes simplified way. But you know that when you get to closure, compromises will be necessary. And I think that Americans are conflicted about the word compromise. It can be a tendency to lead for weak and useless compromises instead of waging the good fight. Or it can be an essential effort to resolve real differences in a way that allows the nation to move forward on big questions.

Humphrey used to tell me, you never do anything fundamentally in America without bipartisanship. And he said, you never do it, in the end, without compromise. All the civil rights fights that I was in usually ended up in Dirksen's office. And we would work out a deal with him. And then he would support it, and we'd have the votes. And in so many, many issues, when it gets right down to the last steps, somehow Americans have to, through their representatives, make a bargain that allows us to move on. And usually, it's good for us.

GARY EICHTEN: You, as we were noting, have one of the-- it's just an incredible resume of public service. You've had all these different positions-- Senator, Vice President, Ambassador, Attorney General. Which one did you find most rewarding?

WALTER MONDALE: I get asked that a lot. And I loved them all. I always wanted to be elected to something. And when I was elected office, I was happy. I loved being Attorney General. I loved being a Senator. I loved being a Vice President. I loved running for President, for Vice President.

I was on the ticket, national ticket, three times. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best way to live a life. You're in the issues. You're around people. This great country, you're deciding things and helping it move on. I'm really, really grateful that Joan and I had this chance to live our life in this way.

GARY EICHTEN: So you actually enjoyed running for office?

WALTER MONDALE: Yes.

GARY EICHTEN: And I say that because I know a lot of people will say, well, sure, I'd like to be governor, but I don't want to run for governor, whatever.

WALTER MONDALE: So that person is not going to be governor either. This idea that they will come to me, no, you got to go out. And I think people want you to ask for something. If you want to be governor, come on out and tell us what you want to do, answer our questions. Let's see you at work. We might give it to you. We might not.

GARY EICHTEN: A little bit like pledge week.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah, right. Well, not as long, though.

[APPLAUSE, CHEERING]

[LAUGHTER]

GARY EICHTEN: All right. I have one more. And then we'll get the lights up and take some audience questions. So get your questions ready here. In fact, why don't we turn the lights up a little bit and wave if you've got a question. And we'll get a microphone, get that all set up in advance so there's no hesitation. But I did want to ask you about the news media. From your experience, what should people reasonably expect from the news media in terms of information? And what do they need to get that, perhaps, they're not getting now?

WALTER MONDALE: Well, an adequate news outlet, a newspaper television station, MPR, which is far more than adequate, needs to have reporters that can go out and dig stories. It needs the courage to report stories that are explosive and difficult to deal with. And it needs to take seriously its role as an educator, to allow the citizens to know what's going on. And that's where you rank at the top.

GARY EICHTEN: Well, thank you.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale on stage at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul last night, Walter Mondale, who is Minnesota's senior statesman, he's a former Attorney General, US Senator, Vice President, presidential nominee, US ambassador. He was our featured guest last night for our final farewell "Midday" broadcast. We'll have more from the event after a break for news.

PHIL PICARDI: Thanks, Gary. Phil Picardi here in the MPR newsroom. Legendary blues singer Etta James has died. James had been suffering from dementia, kidney problems, and leukemia. In December, her physician announced her condition was terminal. The enduring classic "At Last" is her signature song. Etta James was 73.

The four remaining Republican presidential candidates are getting a final day of campaigning today before tomorrow's South Carolina primary. Mitt Romney is clinging to a narrow lead in South Carolina polls, but Newt Gingrich is closing in. At last night's debate, Gingrich responded to new allegations from his second wife by saying the story is false. He was asked about her claim, he suggested they have an open marriage.

The eastbound lanes of Highway 14 in Mankato are closed due to a multi-vehicle crash on the Minnesota River. MnDOT says two semis and several cars are involved. Three to four inches of snow has fallen from Mankato to New Ulm to Saint Peter this morning. In the Twin Cities, snow during the rush hour was a factor in a number of crashes and spinouts.

Periods of snow across the southern third of the state will continue into the afternoon. The National Weather Service says, a winter weather advisory remains in effect for South Central Minnesota until 6:00 this evening. This is Minnesota Public Radio News

GARY EICHTEN: And this is "Midday" coming to you on Minnesota Public Radio news. Good morning, Gary Eichten here. It's 29 minutes before 12:00. And let's get back to former Vice President Walter Mondale, on stage last night at the Fitzgerald Theater. After the opening conversation that you heard right before the news, the Vice President, former Vice President, took some questions from the audience at the Fitzgerald Theater.

AUDIENCE: Vice President Mondale, you were well known as having one of the most first powerful vice presidents, having a say in office. What was something that you and Jimmy Carter disagreed about?

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah. When we disagreed, I would take it to him, and we'd have an argument. And he made the decision. But we did not have an issueless relationship. But we tried to handle it in a way that strengthened his presidency.

GARY EICHTEN: Is there a big difference? Because none of us, at least I don't think so, none of us have ever been President of the United States, is there a significant difference between even President and Vice President? I mean, is it way off there?

WALTER MONDALE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. There was about 20-feet difference between our offices. But the gap was actually greater than that. The President, of course, is the most powerful officer in the world. The Vice President, even with the changes that we made, which significantly changes and increases the role of the Vice President, nevertheless remains there because the president wants him. And he's influential to the extent that the President trusts him and finds that he's functioning effectively.

The vice presidency is very important, increasingly now that all of them, since me, have been in the White House and worked closely with the president. You can see Joe Biden moving around in key places, using his strength to help extend the presidency's, Obama's, influence. So I think it's a reform that has worked. It's helped the country. But never get that confused. There's only one president at a time.

GARY EICHTEN: Stephen?

STEPHEN: Gary, we have Rick from Stillwater who has a question for the vice president.

AUDIENCE: Yes. Mr. Vice President, what do you see as the role of the United States for the next generation?

WALTER MONDALE: A lot to do. Here at home, I think we've got to get the economy moving. We got to get people back at work. They've got to be able to make the money to care for themselves and their family. I would put it at the top of the list. Emphasizing the importance of education, Minnesota has always been at the very top in the country of educating our young people.

And a lot of us in this room are beneficiaries of what our parents did to get us educated. But somehow, Minnesota's leadership in education is slipping a little bit. Now you can see it in the results of the testing. You can see it in the gap between poor Minnesotans and middle-class or wealthy Minnesotans.

And you can see it in the increasing difficulty that middle-class parents have in sending their kids to college. It's so expensive now that if you've got two or three young people in your family going at the same time, you really have to be wealthy or go into debt in a big way. I'd like to see Minnesota reassert its leadership in educating every Minnesotan.

[APPLAUSE]

Nobody knows what kind of problems we'll confront 30 years from now. The only thing for sure is if we educate our young people in the best possible way so they all get the tools to learn and to cope with society, we'll do a lot better job with those problems than if we don't.

GARY EICHTEN: Phil?

PHIL: Gary, we have David from Saint Paul.

AUDIENCE: Hi, Mr. Mondale. Thank you for your service.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you.

AUDIENCE: My question is about the state of Congress today. As we the general public, learn about Congress through the news media, well, frankly, it seems like a circus, a bunch of clowns working or not working together. I'm wondering, when they're not playing to the cameras, is it any better than the way it appears?

WALTER MONDALE: Well, there's a lot of good people in Congress. And we shouldn't overlook that fact. But I think Congress today is a reflection of the kind of hostility and divisions in American society. They reflect, more or less, what their constituents have been talking to them voting for. And right now instead of having some of that sense of compromise, of community, of national purpose that I think is essential for an effective Congress, everything's a train wreck.

It doesn't seem to make any difference what the issue is, they collide. If it's the debt ceiling, those things were always routinely approved in the past under Republican, Democrat. Now it's a fight every time. The filibuster rule that I tried to reform and I tried to get some more reforms in it, is used on almost everything.

So today in the Senate, it's not a 50-vote majority rule body anymore. It's a 60-vote thing. Everything is 60 votes, the nominations for offices, for judgeships. Half the offices are empty because no nominations are confirmed until and unless somebody wants to lift a hold. So that doesn't look good.

And I think appearances are very accurate here. Congress has to deal with those rules. And they have to deal with, why it is that they can't sit down and be adults and work things out in a reasonable way. It doesn't mean they shouldn't have their views and debate. You need all of that. And they're entitled to their opinions, but they're not entitled to their own facts. And we need to get that clear and try to make some progress again.

[APPLAUSE]

GARY EICHTEN: All right. Up, way up, to the second balcony, David.

DAVE: We have Jane from McGregor, Minnesota.

AUDIENCE: I'm concerned about the amount of money in politics today. And I think it's a threat to democracy, actually, that people of modest means no longer feel they can run for office. And I'm wondering how you feel we can get a handle on that.

WALTER MONDALE: That worries me almost as much or more than anything else, with the Citizens United case of about two years ago that ruled that money was the same as free speech, and you couldn't control it or regulate it, and that corporations were the same as individual voters, and they should be able to spend money out of their treasuries without limit. And most of it now is spent without any disclosure.

And the estimates in these primaries that they've had in there is that 2/3 of the money being spent, and slapping around those States comes from these undisclosed corporate sources. There are billionaires roaming around the country working out their life issues with hundreds of millions of dollars. There's no limit to it. And so I think we need full disclosure about where the money is coming from.

I think we should prohibit any corporation with significant foreign ownership from participating in this because we have never allowed foreigners to get involved in American elections, never. And this is a kind of a loophole now that they can go through. I think we should close that. And if we can, we should try to persuade the court to take another look at it. I'm not that confident, and I think we should even try a constitutional Amendment to see if we can't figure--

[APPLAUSE]

One more minute.

GARY EICHTEN: OK.

WALTER MONDALE: Lincoln said, "We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people." He always could put things the best way. In other words, this is supposed to belong to us. Every citizen is supposed to have an equal part of America. That's the genius, that's the legitimacy, that's the virtue of everything else.

And there is so much money now that can be applied to these campaigns. And politicians are being forced to kneel before these people and get the bundles of money. And I'm afraid we'll get to the point where we are no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but it'd be something different and ugly. And we've got to change this.

GARY EICHTEN: Tom.

[APPLAUSE]

TOM: One question here from Julie from Saint Paul.

AUDIENCE: Vice President Mondale, how many years do you suppose it will be until we have discussions of the presidency that use feminine pronouns instead of just male pronouns?

WALTER MONDALE: Well, I tried to do something about it.

[APPLAUSE]

One of the really good things to happen in America the last 40 years, one has been civil rights to remove official discrimination from our country. And the second has been to start to dismantle the restrictions against gender fairness and openness. And there are many more senators, congresspeople, governors, successful-- Amy Klobuchar is a good example. That wouldn't have happened 30 years ago.

[APPLAUSE]

GARY EICHTEN: And let me just interject. I should have said this earlier. One of my real heroes growing up was Jim Klobuchar.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah.

GARY EICHTEN: Great sportswriter, great columnist. Where are you, Jim? Are you here somewhere? Why don't you just stand up for a second?

[APPLAUSE]

[LAUGHTER]

The reason I mentioned Jim because, well, he deserves to be mentioned. But beyond that, he's now only known as Amy's dad.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah.

GARY EICHTEN: Amy said, he goes out and campaigns for all the time without being asked. I'm sorry for interrupting.

WALTER MONDALE: That's good. What were we talking about?

GARY EICHTEN: I don't know. Stephen.

STEPHEN: Jan from across the river in Wisconsin has a question.

AUDIENCE: Hi, Mr. Mondale. I'm delighted to be able to see you here. I'd be interested in your perspective of what's going on in the country as far as the vast division between super conservative and the rest of us.

WALTER MONDALE: I keep trying to figure that out. When all those years we were in office, one of the delights of being there was the bipartisanship. Now, there were hardliners on both ends. But almost everything we did, we sat down together and worked it out. And we enjoyed each other. We had events together. We shared jokes and everything together. And one of the best friendships in the Senate was Barry Goldwater and Hubert Humphrey. They loved each other even though-- they're always cracking wise, and so on.

And that's gone now. And it's a terrible loss to our country. And I think, one, if you decide that what you thought were political issues are instead religious issues, and it's not a difference between two people arguing over a question, but it's a question between good and evil, the sense of compromise and community, I think, is drained out of the debate.

And the last 10 years, or maybe more or so, it seems like political issues have been captured by people that like to use the political, the religious club. It doesn't work. It shouldn't be there. And I don't mean that religious beliefs aren't important because they are. But I think when you get them all mixed up the way they are today, and you paralyze the system, we all lose. And I hope we can get over it.

[APPLAUSE]

GARY EICHTEN: Phil, Phil.

PHIL: Gary, we have Wendy from white Bear Lake.

AUDIENCE: Boy, talk about heroes, Mr. Mondale, you're one of my heroes. So thank you very much for your service to this country and for writing a good book, too. So my question tonight for you is, you had mentioned that President Carter had been an underestimated president. And to that, I agree. I'd like you to elaborate on his modest reputation when, in fact, I think that he had a heck of a lot to offer. And was it his lack of responding to PACs? Was it the Iran-Contra? Why was his reputation, why was it more profound than it is?

WALTER MONDALE: We spent four years going to war. I don't think we had one major internal embarrassment. We obeyed the law. We told the truth. And we kept the peace. And Carter was essential, of course, to all of that. We took on some big issues like the Middle East and got the Camp David Accords, Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty. We broke through with China. We did the Panama Canal. We did all sorts of things around the world that, I think, were important and made America look good.

And here, at home, a lot of the changes we made were profound and important to our future. Here was a guy that grew up in Southern Georgia, in what Andy Young told me was the baddest county in Georgia, who was strongly for civil rights. And I think that leadership on his part helped America get rid of the terrible burden of the racial's attitude, separation that divided America. We've been a better country for that.

GARY EICHTEN: Iran, the Iranian hostage crisis certainly has weighed on the Carter presidency. Are we headed for another war with or a war with Iran?

WALTER MONDALE: I worry about that. They've got some radical leaders in there. Like, when we were in office this [INAUDIBLE] seems a little deranged to me. And when a country like that-- and they've got real troubles financially and so on-- when they get in trouble, one of the things that governments like to do is create an enemy overseas so that they can silence their critics at home.

And I hope nothing happens. But there's been so many threats thrown around. I think now is the time to stay as cool as we can, to try to dial down the rhetoric on both sides, easier said than done, but I'm worried about it.

GARY EICHTEN: David.

DAVID: We have Kate Ellis from Boston.

AUDIENCE: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I've read a couple articles recently suggesting that Barack Obama, possibly to supercharge the ticket for the 2012 election, figured out a way to have Hillary Clinton basically join the ticket as his running mate and have Joe Biden possibly appointed to Secretary of State. I'm wondering what you think about that as a possibility and as a strategy.

WALTER MONDALE: This is a hard night's work.

[LAUGHTER]

GARY EICHTEN: We had to bring in the best to fill these.

WALTER MONDALE: Both the President and the Vice President have said that they intend to run as a team. I think Biden's been a great Vice President. I think he brings strength to Obama. I think if they broke up the team, people would say, there must be something wrong. And there isn't anything wrong. I think I supported Hillary for president. I think she's spectacular. I think she's been a great Secretary of State. And--

[APPLAUSE]

--she's got a future in this country. And she has made it very clear that she doesn't intend to explore this possibility. And I hope they can keep this team working together.

GARY EICHTEN: I wanted to run down some of, well, your agenda for the future that you outlined in your book the good fight. Quick comments on each of these points, perhaps. First of all, you said nation needs to move away from the anti-government dogma that's so prevalent. What do you mean?

WALTER MONDALE: This is part of the basic argument that I think is paralyzing the country. It began under Reagan and his inaugural address when he said, government isn't the answer. Government is the problem. It wasn't nuanced at all, just government doesn't work. And that idea has percolated throughout our country, and many public leaders say. And you need government for highways. You need police, you need schools, you need all sorts of things that we do together through government.

We need to be defended against all the whole panoply of life. And I think Lincoln said it best that the purpose of government is to do for people what must be done, but what they cannot do so well or at all in their individual capacities. In other words, it's a practical question of when or when you do not want to use government. And that's the way to work on it. If you just say, I don't care what you're proposing, government is not an answer. And it's futility. And it's going to hurt us. It is hurting us, I think now.

GARY EICHTEN: Restore public trust in politics.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah. Well, we talked about money tonight. The greatest joy in public life is to feel that people trust you. It's the biggest compliment every day when you're around people. They may not agree with you, but you think they accept your decency. And again, Lincoln once said, "With public trust, everything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible." And I think the restoration of the citizen's belief in their public leadership, which has to be earned, is fundamental to solving our problems,

GARY EICHTEN: Restore our respect for law. In other words, don't torture people.

WALTER MONDALE: That's right. I spent a lot of time inside government working on intelligence, working with our agency. And we need strong intelligence and strong international efforts of that kind. We've got to be careful about it. But what has always bothered me is when we use those concerns to justify suppression of legal rights here at home.

And it has happened. The FBI tailed Martin Luther King for five years. They thought he was a hate leader. And they thought he was a Communist. He was neither. But what he was one of the most inspired leaders in our history.

And when you get those agencies and government mixed up with ideas and politics, instead of enforcing the law against acts, you're in for trouble. And I tried every way I could in the Senate and when I was Vice President to keep that line solid. And I'll tell you one other thing. When we're careful about our public reputation, and we obey the law, we're stronger against our adversaries.

GARY EICHTEN: Restore America's reputation in the world.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah, well, I think Iraq, a lot of things we did are kind of arrogant certainty that our government had for a while. It turns people off. I spent those years in Japan, and I looked at American foreign policy by listening to my friends there. And they're proud people. They're educated people. They know what's going on. They have a democracy. And they expect to be respected, not necessarily obeyed.

And that's true around the world. We need to deal with others in a way that builds respect and, hopefully, some cooperation. That's not possible with some countries. And the other thing I'd say is a lot of these wars like Vietnam and Iraq, I think when they look at that 50 years from now, they'll say there's a lot of problems with these two. One common problem was ignorant.

We didn't know about Vietnam. We didn't know what we were getting into. We thought they'd see us as a savior. They saw us as replacing the French. And it was a poisoned environment. We finally had to sneak home. Iraq, our leaders weren't listening to people who knew about Iraq. It was a mistake in basically understanding and knowing what was going on that was disregarded. And I think the American people have to demand that our leaders know and listen to people who know what they're getting into before we take that fateful step.

GARY EICHTEN: And finally, restore civility to political discourse.

WALTER MONDALE: Yeah. Well, I think we talked about that quite a bit tonight. And maybe Minnesota can lead the way here because it's only in that way that we make progress. It's only in that way that we're able to deal with the problems that we need to deal with. And we got a lot of them here. This evening's coming to an end, I think. But I want to mention the environment before we end.

What we should be aiming at is preparing a Minnesota and a nation for the next generation. We should be measuring ourselves by whether we're making it better for our kids and their kids or not. And one of the things we're really slipping is the environment. There's all kinds of evidence of that, man producing global warming and all the obvious costs of that and the growing costs of that. We've got environmental issues here at home that I don't think we're dealing with.

The easiest thing to do when somebody has got a commercial project that makes money, and it takes a little bit of wetland, or it goes across the river, is to say, well, let's do this now because it's needed. And maybe it is. But where you have precious areas of natural beauty, where you're dealing with the health of people in the air and the water, and you want something left for our kids and our grandchildren so they can see how beautiful this country can be, I think that's worth a lot. But it's hard to do it politically right now. But I think we need to.

GARY EICHTEN: Minnesota's senior statesman. thank you, Walter Mondale.

WALTER MONDALE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

GARY EICHTEN: Vice President Walter Mondale on stage last night at the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul, our featured guest, fortunate for us, our featured guest for our final "Midday" broadcast. We just did some math this morning, curious as to how many times Walter Mondale has been interviewed on "Midday."

Now, this doesn't count all the speeches at Westminster and Minnesota meetings, those kind of appearances, National Press Club's. Best we can tell, we had the opportunity to interview Walter Mondale 38 times over the years. Every time, we learned something new, just one of the many benefits of doing this program.

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