In his novel, George Orwell predicted by 1984 we would ruled by ruthless power structure having succeeded in brainwashing the masses. Instead we got Ronald Reagan.
Carter had been a banana to the Reagan steamroller in 1980, and Mondale was Carter's second banana. You could predict the outcome. Mondale briefly energized his campaign by selecting Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman ever to appear on a major party's presidential ticket. Unfortunately, Ferraro's husbands had some itty-bitty ethics problems, involving some tiny bank fraud and minor bribery.
Mondale and Ferraro stood for bizarre, unpalatable ideas: equal rights for women, reproductive rights, that sort of nonsense, and in the charisma department, compared to Walter Mondull, as his friends called him, a man so colorless, even color photographs of him come out black and white, Reagan was like a movie star. (Come to think of it, Reagan was a movie star.)
At 73, Reagan became the oldest candidate ever elected president, but he refused to let age be an issue in the election, saying in a debate, "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." Mondale himself laughed, but later said he was crying on the inside (we really dodged a bullet not having him as president). He told his wife, that "that was the end of the campaign. It was over." Mondale, however, was mistaken. The campaign was over on July 16 when he received the Democratic nomination.
Result
Ronald Reagan: 525
Walter Mondale: 13
