I’m watching Walter Mondale’s concession speech for the Minnesota Senate seat and a reporter asks him about the Wellstone memorial service cum political rally. So Mondale gives the predictable response: “the eulogizers hurt themselves the most”, “can’t we forgive and move on,” etc. As I’m watching this, I see some guy standing over Mondale’s shoulder, mouthing the words as or before Mondale says them! Of course, most political answers are written by handlers before they’re ever uttered, but it was instructive to see that the political operatives were so worried that Mondale would get it wrong, they were so nervous, that they became so obvious. It’s a good thing Mondale isn’t the next US Senator from Minnesota, for Minnesotans and for the US, if he can’t be trusted to speak without someone standing at his elbow.
