Eleanor Mondale’s Long, Strange Journey

Leaving aside the familiar (and usually farcical) tale of yet another mainstream news organization making a clueless stab at “edgy,” “with-it” content for the “hip crowd,” only to be horrified that “edgy”—at least as practiced by the general population—bears no resemblance to an accordian act at a Presbyterian church dinner, the question for Mondale is, “Shouldn’t you have known better?” Or, metaphorically, “What did you expect, wearing a dress like that in Minnesota?”

As the daughter of a former U.S. senator/vice president/presidential nominee, how could she not understand, or have been told, about the double-edged sword of media attention? As the limelight giveth, it also burneth away.

“What did I tell her during all that?” Joan Mondale asks. “I don’t remember exactly. But it was along the lines of ‘It isn’t true. So just let it go.’ But there’s no question it had a powerful effect and it did hurt her. Things like that are so easily said.”

In Joan’s eyes, her daughter’s life “has always been complex, but Eleanor has always surmounted it, and has always rebounded from adversity. “As for being a center of attention,” she says. “It’s always been that way for her. When she walks into a room, all heads turn. But I really believe it’s not because she is trying to be Miss Celebrity.”

Mondale’s closest friend is possibly Joe Weldon. He was Eleanor’s roommate and, according to the two of them, nearly inseparable companion during the eight years she lived in LA in the nineties. She also shared a New York apartment with him for two of those years.

“If you’re wondering, I’m not Joey’s type,” she says, winking.

Weldon, raised in Brainerd, confirms that Eleanor, despite the political family, the glamour, and outward ease with pop trends, is actually guileless. If plotting the ruination of others and savoring schadenfreude isn’t a key asset and a practiced talent, you don’t have much radar for when it’s being done to you.

“Eleanor is really a very positive person and a liberating force in my life,” says Weldon. “She’s an optimist, which means, I think, that you don’t go out expecting to hurt people or, on the other hand, expecting to get hurt yourself. Because of her family and the way she was raised, she believes it’s possible to do lots of different things. She’s a very brave person in that way.”