Geraldine Ferraro dies

We're sad to report the death of Geraldine Ferraro, who was best known as the Democratic nominee for Vice-President in 1984. She died today at the age of 75.

The Queens-based congresswoman was the first woman to be nominated to run for Vice-President by a major party when she served as Walter Mondale's running mate.

Ferraro actually drew more attention than Mondale did through much of the campaign. And although the ticket carried only Minnesota and D.C., I think there's general agreement by fans of this blog that America would have been better off with the Mondale/Ferraro team in charge than with another grueling term of Reagan and Bush.

(Also, I don't know how much role the media played in reelecting Reagan, though it was clear by '88 that the media was in the tank for the GOP.)

The 1984 election was also my first experience with mock elections in school. So every time the '84 election is mentioned, I can't help but think about the old Apple computers they used for it in 6th grade.