Mondale exploits his age to keep Democrats in charge

Walter Mondale was out "meeting the voters" in a Minnesota department store when he was treated to a hearty handshake. Why on earth, he was asked, was he running for office, so long after his retirement from politics?

"For my country," the former vice-president of the United States explained.

The eminence grise of the Democratic Party seemed shocked that anyone needed to ask. As every Minnesotan voter knows, he was drafted in at the last minute to help the Democrats hold the balance of power in the Senate after the death of Senator Paul Wellstone last week.

"And there is something else," Mr Mondale added, "our US Senator, whom I admired, and his wife and daughter, died in a plane accident. And we only have five days to go and we needed someone who could work to attack the problems our country faces right now. I felt this was something I should do and this is something I want to do as well."

There you have it. Walter Mondale never asked for all of this. At the age of 74 and having been absent from frontline politics since losing a presidential bid against the incumbent Ronald Reagan in 1984, he would not have chosen to take centrestage in an increasingly fractious battle, which the Democrats know they must win if they are to hold on to the Senate.

He would not have chosen to give up his role with a lucrative law firm to enter a fray where people would question his age and health – forcing him on Thursday to release a letter from his doctor that said he was "certainly in good shape to perform all the duties required of a United States senator".

Oddly enough, Mr Mondale's Republican challenger, Norm Coleman, would not have wanted it either. Opinion polls suggested that he was doing much better against the incumbent, Paul Wellstone, than many had predicted.

That all changed when Mr Wellstone, considered one of Capitol Hill's most liberal and likeable politicians, was killed with his wife, Sheila, their daughter Marcia, three aides and two pilots, when their campaign plane crashed in woodland in the northern part of the state last week.

Amid the tears and grieving for Mr Wellstone, Democrats realised they had to find a replacement, and quickly. Only one realistic option was available and they knew that the courteous gentleman who represented Minnesota in the Senate from 1964 until 1976 and then served as Jimmy Carter's deputy would not let them down.

"Taking on Walter Mondale is like running against Mount Rushmore," admitted Mr Coleman, formerly the mayor of nearby St Paul, the second and somewhat more blue-collar city of the so-called Twin Cities conurbation. "I am running against an icon."

While there are clear policy differences between the candidates, the race in wintry Minnesota, where the temperature hovered around zero yesterday, is being increasingly portrayed as a choice between experience and relative youth. Mr Coleman is 53 and the age difference between him and his opponent is much the same as existed between Mr Mondale and Ronald Reagan when The Gipper took the 1984 presidential race by a landslide. Mr Mondale secured only his home state.

In that contest, Mr Reagan taunted Mr Mondale for his lesser years, saying that he would not hold his "youth and inexperience against him". This time Mr Mondale is doing much the same, telling a public meeting at St Paul's Macalester College that he was not going to "apologise for my experience".

He added: "[I know] about American government, the Senate and how things work, [I know] about international relations and security ... Dates might have changed but the fundamental values of the American people have remained constant."

In turn, Mr Coleman has been playing on his more youthful image. He has appeared at meetings across the state and on his television commercials in open-necked shirts rather than the suits and ties of Mr Mondale. He is claiming that, while he does not believe his opponent is too old, "this election is about the future".

Another factor could affect the vote on Tuesday. Many voters appear deeply upset that a memorial service for Mr Wellstone, held earlier this week and attended by the likes of the former president Bill Clinton and the current Senate leader, Tom Daschle, became a political rally when a friend of the late senator took the microphone and urged Democrats and Republicans alike to "help us win this Senate election for Paul Wellstone".

One typical letter to the local newspaper, the Star Tribune, complained: "It turned a beautiful evening into something vulgar and divisive." The Republicans have been trying to make capital of this anger, but in truth they have been playing tough since the start of this campaign and they are continuing to play tough. President George Bush will arrive here tomorrow to try to narrow the gap of six to eight points reckoned to separate Mr Coleman and Mr Mondale.

The Democrats, meanwhile, are taking no chances. Mr Mondale has thrown himself into the few days of campaigning left to him and will tour as much of Minnesota as time allows – just as Mr Wellstone himself was doing.

But there is one key difference: all of Mr Mondale's travel will be done by bus. One aide said: "There will be no planes."