It was a hot Thursday morning in Minnesota. Across the country Democrats were converging on San Francisco to nominate Walter F. Mondale for president. There was little mystery to the proceedings; the former vice president had beaten away a dangerous challenge from Gary Hart and all that remained was to name a running mate. Presidential nominees in those days did that in the convention city itself.
Though history remembers Mr. Mondale as the last of the New Deal-era conventional Democrats, there was a strong unconventional streak to him and it stood in vivid relief that day in July 1984. Half a continent from the party leaders, Mr. Mondale walked in beneath the marble dome of the state capitol in St. Paul and told the world he had chosen a 48-year-old daughter of an Italian immigrant to be his running mate. She was the first woman on a national ticket for a major party.
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