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'Things are going to get better,' Biden tells donors

At an exclusive dinner at Robert Pohlad's house, the vice president praises Walter Mondale, and raises $250,000.

By RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER, Star Tribune

Last update: October 15, 2009 - 11:42 PM

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Vice President Joe Biden came to Minnesota on Thursday for an intimate visit with a select group of donors.

Biden was the featured guest at a small Edina fundraiser that raised about a quarter of a million dollars for the Democratic National Committee. He told the group of about 30 donors of his admiration for former Vice President Walter Mondale, his struggle after his wife and daughter died in a car crash in 1972 and his emphatic belief that better times are ahead.

"I promise you -- I promise you -- things are going to get better," he said.

He said he understands supporters' frustration that the Obama administration has taken on so much at once -- education, health care, energy policy -- but said, "We don't have a choice."

None of the country's problems could wait to be addressed and, he said, "We are not in this for incremental change. Incremental change will not work."

Biden spent about half of his 30-minute remarks praising Mondale, who attended the event, and the late Hubert Humphrey.

Biden said both helped him stay in the Senate after his wife and daughter were killed and his two other children were injured in a 1972 car accident. "All I could do is think how to get the hell home. ... I did not want to stay," Biden said.

Biden called Mondale the "single most prominent vice president in American history" and the father of the modern vice presidency. "Your shoes are awful big to fill," he told Mondale.

He said that after Obama asked him to be on the ticket at a meeting that happened to take place in Minnesota, Biden first called his longtime chief of staff and then he called Mondale. "I continue to call on Fritz for advice," he said.

"I'm glad you are still my friend and I'm glad you're still willing to talk to me," Biden said to applause from the small group of donors, each of whom donated at least $7,500 per person to attend.

Robert Pohlad, son of the late Twins owner Carl Pohlad and CEO of PepsiAmericas, hosted the fundraiser. Notable people in attendance included Mondale and his wife, Joan; state Sen. Dick Cohen, DFL-St. Paul, and Alida Messinger, sister of U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller and frequent Democratic cash contributor.

Pohlad has also long been a significant donor. According to Federal Elections Commission records, he has donated nearly $300,000 to political campaigns over the past decade.

Most of his contributions have gone to Democrats, including $28,500 to the Obama Victory Fund and $27,000 to the Democrats' Committee for Change last year. He also made a $50,000 donation to President Obama's inauguration committee, and his wife, Rebecca, chipped in another $25,000, according to a database of donors.

But he has also made large contributions to Republicans, including $10,000 to the Minnesota GOP last November and more than $15,000 to former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's war chest over the years.

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger • 651-292-0164

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