the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale

Eleanor Mondale Poling, a former radio and television personality and the daughter of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, died early Saturday at his farm in Prior Lake, Minn. She was 51. The cause was brain cancer, who had been fighting since 2005, his family said. “She was a wonderful daughter,” Mr. Mondale said in a telephone interview from his daughter’s home, where relatives and friends had gathered. “A great spirit, a lot of courage. She fought this stuff almost six years now, and never a whimper.”

Eleanor Jane Mondale was born in Minneapolis on January 19, 1960, the second of three children of Mr. Mondale and his wife, Joan. When I was 4 years old, his father was appointed to the Senate seat vacated by Hubert H. Humphrey, who had become president, President Lyndon B. Johnson 's vice president.

He graduated from St. Timothy School in Maryland and St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY While in college, and shortly thereafter, spent time in Los Angeles to audition for television and movie roles, landing small roles in several television shows, including “Three’s Company” and “Dynasty.”

She also appeared on the campaign trail, campaigning for his father in 1984 during his campaign not to overthrow President Ronald Reagan.

Ms. Mondale told Newsweek in 1985 that having a famous father was a double-edged sword in Hollywood. “The exposure didn’t hurt,” she said. “But being Walter Mondale’s daughter doesn’t make me a good actress. I have to prove myself five times over. I have to overcompensate.” Ms. Mondale began her broadcasting career in the late 1980s as a radio D.J. in Chicago. In 1989, she became an entertainment reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. She later worked as a D.J. at WLOL-FM, a Minneapolis radio station, and as an on-air personality at the E! Online cable channel, ESPN and “This Morning” on CBS.

In 2005, he suffered two seizures during a camping trip and was diagnosed with brain cancer. A year later, after chemotherapy and radiation, returned to the air as host of a morning radio weekdays on WCCO-AM in Minneapolis.

In March 2009, gave up those rights, announcing that the cancer had returned. He underwent surgery to remove a tumor that August.

Mrs. Mondale found its way into the gossip columns at an early age. In 1977, when he was 17, attracted the attention of photographers when she wore a tuxedo for an inaugural ball of President Jimmy Carter.

Over the years, she was linked romantically with several celebrities, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Warren Zevon and Don Henley, and the financier Ronald O. Perelman. She was married three times, first to Keith Van Horne, a previous entry of the Chicago Bears in 1988, and then Greg Malba, a DJ known as Greg Thunder, in 1991. In 2005 she married Chan Poling, a musician and composer, and took his surname.

The couple lived on a small farm, where he kept a menagerie of animals, including horses, dogs, cats, chickens and a cockatoo, according to a photo spread in a 2005 edition of Country Living magazine. The chickens were kept in a corner of the barn, decorated with an antique lamp. Ms. Poling called the cooperative "Cluckingham Palace".

In addition to Mr. Poling and her parents, Ms. Poling is survived by his brothers, Ted Mondale, former Minnesota state senator, and William H. Mondale, a former assistant attorney general of Minnesota.

President Barack Obama’s Speech

President Obama opened his speech in primetime on Monday night to remind the American people that George W. deficits Bush 's irresponsible are crippling the economy. Sure, he racked up a “little credit card debt” saving the economy, but not to worry, he assured us, it’s a problem that can easily be solved. “Rich” “corporations” make too much money. Unfortunately, a radical cadre of House Republicans is standing in the way of a “grand bargain” to reduce Bush’s deficit by not “seeing eye-to-eye” with the president on the need to raise taxes. Call your elected representatives, Obama implored. Tell them to agree with me.

Raising the debt ceiling is just not that big of deal, he explained. Every president has done it (though he voted against it as a Senator). He just needs an extra $2.5 trillion in debt to pay the bills that have already been “racked up by Congress.”

But we also need to reduce Bush’s deficit. Unfortunately, the “cuts-only” approach being championed by House Republicans “doesn’t solve the problem,” and is simply unacceptable. The cuts-only proposal put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) on the other hand, is “a much better approach” because it absolves lawmakers from having to relitigate the issue at a later date (when there are important reelection campaigns to consider).

“We all agree,” he said, even House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) and plenty of Senate

Republicans, on the need to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion, and the need to raise taxes by $1 trillion on “patriotic Americans” who are “willing to pitch in.”

“They’ve done it before,” he said. Indeed, argued the president, when congress has raised taxes in the past, the American people have tended to pay them. Did you know that Reagan raised taxes? I’m just like Reagan, he assured us. He’s perfectly willing to make “tough decisions” on entitlement reform, but only if “the burden is fairly shared.”

“We’re left at a stalemate,” Obama concluded. Therefore, he has decided to take the lead, by demanding that congressional leaders come up with a “fair compromise” that can pass both houses, so he can sign it (and take credit for it). The American people, he said, are “offended” by “a town where compromise has become a dirty word.” What is this great country of ours, if not a “grand experiment in compromise?”

As for the blatant, cynical demagoguery, politics, the speech was part of the course. On the merits, Obama endorsed the proposal of Harry Reid in the Senate, but not explicit threat to veto an increase in short-term debt (as indicated in the Boehner plan). Either way, it's a bit late in the game at this time to try to reframe the debate on debt, especially in the Apocalypse is coming in the White House insists that will happen if nothing is done by August 2. Should be an interesting week.