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Mondale may have great difficulty fulfilling his promise to women to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which requires approval by three-fourths of the states. He wants the Federal Government to eliminate sex differentials in the pay of federal workers. He says he would take steps to remedy the pay disparities between jobs traditionally held by men and those dominated by women. Under the contentious principle of "comparable worth," he would equalize pay for jobs requiring the same level of skill and effort; a counselor for the handicapped, say, might be paid the same as an equipment operator. Most economists feel that comparable worth cannot be quantified, and would be prohibitively expensive even if it could. The only way to set pay scales in a large, complex economy, they say, is through the supply and demand of the market.
Mondale's rhetoric sometimes borders on demagoguery when he addresses the elderly. "Reagan is trying to repeal Medicare by stealth," he tells residents of old-age homes, noting that the President has proposed a hike in some Medicare premiums from $14 to $40 a month. He accuses Reagan of slicing $80 billion out of future Social Security benefits without conceding that this was part of a bipartisan package to save the program from bankruptcy.
Mondale professes to relish a fight with the President over campaign promises and special interests. He cites Reagan's 1980 vow to balance the budget as the biggest unkept promise in political history. He charges that Reagan's tax and budget cuts were a sellout to corporations and the wealthy. Mondale ticks off the groups that he supports: the unemployed, workers needing retraining, schoolchildren, anyone who wants clean air and water, the elderly, blacks, Hispanics and women. "If those are special interests," he says, "count me in. I'm proud of every one of them."
Hart last week tried to exploit another potential Mondale liability, accusing him of being overly cautious. He noted that Mondale had not spoken out against the Viet Nam War until 1969, took 18 days before saying anything about the Grenada invasion, and waited months before calling for the withdrawal of Marines from Lebanon. Picking up on a maladroit comment by Mondale's media adviser Roy Spence that Mondale "dares to be cautious," Hart declared, "The future can only be secured with a different kind of President—who dares to be bold, not cautious." Mondale readily concedes that his slowness in turning against U.S. involvement in Viet Nam "was the worst mistake of my entire career." His aides insist that caution is a good thing when the international stakes are high. They claim that Mondale's deliberation contrasts favorably with Reagan's impulsiveness. The deeper question, however, is whether Mondale would be decisive in a time of crisis. Charges Cranston: "Mondale is unlikely to offer us bold leadership on the issues of war and peace."