TODD: Let’s see if I can do this in a way… Walter Mondale, former vice president, passed away this week, and I wish that he would rest in peace, and peace amongst his family. And I do remember as a kid watching Walter Mondale speak. And my family, they’re all… Is it true? Yes, all of them are Democrats. I know. It’s like, “I’m trying!” And I remember Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, my mom and dad telling me, “Oh, Jimmy Carter’s a nice man. Look, he’s a nice man. He’s a terrible, terrible, God-awful president. Horrific.”

That’s about the time I started to become conservative and say, “So, wait, Dad. How come now we stand in line for gas? How did that work that we always just drove up and got the gas, and how’d that work and there’s a whole bunch of other things that led to that?” But I remember seeing Walter Mondale speak and as a little boy going, “Why is he vice president? How come he’s special?”

(laughing) I mean, I don’t want to be cruel, but you kind of look at someone and say, “This is it? This is the best and the brightest.” I mean, I know that it’s graduated up to a different level with Joe Biden’s dementia installed behind a militarized fence in Washington, D.C., guarded by the military and such. That is, in fact, quite another aspect of, “Really? People voted for what?”

But I was never — and never will be — the level of political observer that the Maha was, and (laughing) Rush was very fond of pointing out that Vice President Mondale lost 49 states — 49 states! — in 1984. Here’s Rush talking about when he ran for vice president with Jimmy Carter in ’76.

RUSH: Interesting little test I’m going to give you. Do you know who the vice-presidential candidates were in 1976? I’ll give you a hint. The presidential candidates were Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. Who were the vice-presidential candidates in 1976? If you don’t know, this is a great illustration of how irrelevant in most cases the vice president is during the campaign. (interruption)

Snerdley, you think you know? (interruption) Okay. All right, he says Walter Mondale was Jimmy Carter’s vice-presidential nominee. I’ll give you that one, Mondale is right. Who was Gerald Ford’s vice-presidential nominee? (interruption) See? (chuckles) I’m sure some of you in the audience are out there shouting at your radios.

It was Bob Dole, and Bob Dole and Walter F. Mondull had a debate. There was a vice presidential debate in 1976, and I have Senator Mondull’s opening statement. I want to read this to you. We don’t have it on audio, but I have it here, I’m going to read it to you, and I want you to listen and recall now that this was 32 years ago, 1976.

I want you to realize how identical it is to what Democrats today — this very day — are saying. I also want to make a prediction that Joe Biden’s opening statement will contain much of the same thing here that you will hear me read from Walter Mondull in 1976. Are you ready? Here we go.

Walter Mondull: “I believe that most Americans would agree on the problems this country faces and which the next administration must solve. They include the need, once again, for an economy that works. The economy today is in very, very bad shape, the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, 50% higher than when Mr. Ford took office, raging inflation.

“The latest Wholesale Price Index is once again raising the specter of double-digit inflation. The purchasing power of the average American has slipped so much that it’s now the equivalent of the purchasing power in 1965. It’s not getting better; it’s getting worse. All the leading indicators now point downward. Stock investors are losing confidence.

“Over $50 billion of value has disappeared from the stock market in less than a month. We need a government that works, we need a government that cares, and — once again — we have to get back at work on education, on health, on housing, on the environment, on energy. And we need a foreign policy that once again reflects the values and the beliefs of the American people.

“This will take leadership, and we need leadership, too. The Republican administration, the Republican Party has had eight years to solve these problems. All of them have gotten worse. The Republican ticket does not offer new plans for their solution but is engaged in a frantic effort to defend the past.

“This nation desperately needs new leadership. The Carter-Mondale ticket would offer a new generation of leadership dedicated to solving the problems I have listed, and that is the basis of our appeal.” That’s Walter Mondull in his opening statement in a debate against Bob Dole, vice presidential debate 1976, 32 years ago. How much you want to bet it’s almost identical to what Biden says tonight?

Not just because Biden might plagiarize it.

I mean, you hold out the likelihood that he’ll plagiarize it.

But how can it even be called plagiarizing when the same playbook is used for the last 60 years? It doesn’t matter what the reality on the ground is. They lie. They try to panic and frighten everybody. Their playbook has not changed: Gloom, doom, Great Depression. They offer change, and then what did we get? Jimmy Carter. And you want to talk about making it worse, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama following in the footsteps of Jimmy Carter.

TODD: Now (laughing) Joe Biden’s dementia or whoever’s running things — and it is a template. This is what’s so frightening to me about Joe Biden being the figurehead is, look, if you had gone back in time and time traveled and went to Mondull and said, “Hey, now we’re doing this thing where we hate cops and we’re gonna defund the police and men are women,” Mondull would just read it in his teleprompter.

And then the next Democrat nominee would just read it in a teleprompter. See, really there is no such thing as, for instance… There’s no such thing as Joe Biden. There’s the family Biden. There’s, you know, the graft business. Joe Biden is a series of words put into his head and things he’ll say in order to be the top grift in the grifting family.

Mitt Romney. Romney’s not a grifter. Well, he’s a political grifter. But I don’t think he makes money that way. He doesn’t need it. But there’s no such thing as Mitt Romney. He doesn’t exist! There’s a whole bunch of papers. You know what he has a binder of? He’s a binder of opinions. Well, he’s a couple binders of opinions. Because on one day, hey, are you conservative?

“Not only that, I’m a severe conservative, like a severe rash!” Are you a living parent? “I’m a severe parent.” So they’ll read whatever words appear on the screen. It’s like that Will Ferrell movie, what was it, Anchorman. That’s what figureheads do. (chuckles)

Now, in addition to pointing out Mondull’s 49-state landslide loss, Rush had nicknames for some of his favorite politicians to make fun of, and he’s particularly fond of former vice president Walter Mondale. Of course, as I said, he passed away this week. We do, of course, wish he rest in peace. Here’s a montage of Rush having fun at the VP’s expense.

RUSH MONTAGE: (2/3/2004) This is shaping up to be 1984 all over again. Walter F. Mondull saying what he was saying about taxes and two Americas, and, in fact, Mondull is the one that invented that. Mondull invented the whole two America’s bit. (10/13/2005) It reminds me of the time I was at the Democratic Convention in San Francisco in, guess this would be ’84. Yeah, it was ’84. Mondull was the nominee.

(10/02/08) Walter F. Mondull had a debate. You will hear me read from Walter Mondull in 1976, are you ready? That’s Walter Mondull.” (03/30/12) Reminds me of Walter Mondull, the Democrat convention 1984 is running against Reagan. “I promise you I’m gonna raise your taxes.

“Now, so will Ronald Reagan. The difference is he won’t tell you and I just did.” And bye-bye, Democrat Party, lost in a 49-state landslide. (03/03/20) Throw away Plugs. This is a great swan song for Plugs, he’s been a loyal vice president, he’s done whatever the party said. His job is to go out there and be Walter F. Mondull.

TODD: By the way, on the topic of nicknames, when I refer to “Joe Biden’s dementia,” I feel like a bad man, and I want to impress upon people I promise you, I know dementia is not funny. I can remember my grandfather had it near the end of his life, and my mother’s husband — the only grandpa my daughter ever knew — had it. I say it because it must be said this is a man in advanced state of cognitive decline. In a real universe with real Washington, D.C., press, we’d be saying, “Who is running things?” ’cause it’s not Joe.