With all the talk during this mid-term election season of campaign funding and the recent Supreme Court ruling on corporate funding, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how the subject was approached in 1974, hot on the heels of, what was then, a very expensive Midterm election.

Featured, among others on this NBC News Second Sunday radio documentary are Walter Mondale and Joesph Biden giving their views on the problem of campaign finance and interviews with some of the larger campaign contributors of the time. Fascinating stuff and further proof the problem has been around forever.

Walter Mondale: “As I’ve often said, it’s not that you can have a system that assures honesty, but you ought to have a system that makes it possible to be honest if you want to be. And increasingly, the cost of campaigns drive people running for office more and more to the big contributors. Many of these contributors give out of sense of public interest, and I think that has to be said; they’re not all bad people. But it makes for a situation where people with lots of money, and who are so inclined, can meet a politician who is also so inclined, and cut a deal at the cost of the public interest, which could be compromising and corrupting. The American people increasingly think we have a Buy America system where people of great wealth, who are so inclined, get a disproportionate influence at their expense, and I believe they’re right.”

And if they were right then, they are certainly right now.

For all intents and purposes, just a typical June day - only it's 1984.

President Reagan arrived in London on this day, as the 10th Economic Summit got started. A full slate of issues greeted the participants.

A Liberian Grain ship hit a mine in the Persian Gulf, escalating tensions in the already war-torn region. Fighting in the Iran-Iraq War was grinding along with casualties mounting by the hour.

Fighting between Sikhs and the Indian Army escalated with the Army storming the Golden Temple in the Punjab region, resulting in the deaths of 300 Sikhs as well as their leader. The battle touched off Sikh riots in New Delhi with a reported 30 dead at the time of this news report.

A joint Military exercise between the U.S. and El Salvador enraged the government of Nicaragua, who claimed it was ruse in order to stage a full-on invasion of that country. Protests were lodged.

A sailboat bound from Haiti to the U.S. capsized off the Florida coast with a reported 6 drowned and some 61 rescued. The suspicion was the sailboat was crammed with refugees seeking asylum in the U.S.

The Presidential Primaries held on Tuesday yielded sufficient delegates for Walter Mondale to secure the Democratic nomination for the November election.

Flash floods were raging around Vermont.

And it was reported that Acid Rain was more widespread than previously thought.

All this and a lot more on this June 7, 1984 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup and the 9:00 am (PDT) Network news.

So March 14th 1984 had a lot to do with Super Tuesday, which the previous day was (which just so happened was also yesterday in 2012).

The big winners were Gary Hart and Walter Mondale, with Hart picking up 171 delegates to Mondale's 161. Hart was confident he would go the distance. Not going the distance was George McGovern who, as promised he would do so if he didn't win first or second place in Massachusetts, dropped out of the race on this Wednesday morning. All the pundits agreed, the horse race was underway.

In other news: Atlantic City New Jersey Mayor Michael Matthews was recalled in a special election that took place the day before.

Convicted murderer James "Cowboy" Autry was put to death at 12:01 on this day in Texas. The first of what would be four executions to take place in Texas for the month of March.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was shot and wounded by an unknown attempted assassin. Adams was recovering from the ordeal.

On Capitol Hill this day - The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed expanding funding for our excursions in Latin America. First was increased funding for CIA and their covert war in Nicaragua and the second was tripled spending on Military aid to El Salvador. Both funding increases were asked for by the Reagan White House.

And a ceasfire in Beirut Lebanon was appearing to take hold, however shaky it seemed.

And that's how the day went, this March 14th in 1984 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.

February 22nd in 1984 had a lot to do with uncomfortable situations everywhere. From the Middle East, the attempts at brokering a peace settlement in Lebanon fell on Saudi Arabia and Syria in an attempt to hammer something out in what became known as The Damascus Peace Plan. Unfortunately, it left Lebanon President Amin Gemayal in one of those "damned if you do - damned if you don't" situations. In the meanwhile, U.S. Marines, stationed in Beirut since 1982 were pulling out and turning over responsibilities to a UN Peacekeeping force. Enough of this getting shot at from both sides.

Elsewhere in the Middle East - the Iran-Iraq War was still raging on, with Iran now threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz, effectively cutting off oil shipments. That wasn't going to fly with oil interests at all.

In Europe, an uproar over austerity measures in France, Spain and Italy were causing most services to be shut down over strikes in protest.

Back home - President Reagan was set to go before microphones and cameras with his first Press Conference of 1984. The Press had a lot of questions over our Foreign Policy and that age-old malady, our Economy.

The Supreme Court ruled companies on the verge of bankruptcy could cancel union contracts at the discretion of a Federal Bankruptcy judge. And the Miranda Law did not apply to Probation Officers.

The New Hampshire primaries were set to go in a week with one last debate to go before heading to the polls. Democratic hopefuls Walter Mondale and Gary Hart were in the number one and two spot while John Glenn was seeking a change in his campaign after dropping to fifth in the polls.

And U.S.-Vietnam talks were ready to resume after hitting a few bumpy spots over MIA's, causing the negotiations to be put on hold.

All this and lots more via the CBS World News Roundup and 9:00 am (PST) network news for this Wednesday February 22, 1984.

On July 13, 1984 there was a lot more going on in the rest of the world than at home. The upcoming Democratic Convention being held in San Francisco was yielding more than the average yawns and no-shows. Seems everyone wanted a cliff-hanger and now that Geraldine Ferraro made history the day before, it was anti-climactic from here.

Not so in the rest of the world where the Polish Government was stepping gingerly around the potential landmine of embarrassment because of a political trial and trying to keep Solidarity leader Lech Walesa out of the picture, but not successfully.

Meanwhile the rest of the world was dodging bullets, mostly of the ordinance variety with continued violence flaring up in Northern Ireland as the result of British troops shooting dead a suspected IRA member. The Iran-Iraq War was rolling onward. A ceasefire attempt in Lebanon failed and the China-Vietnam War stepped up with border skirmishes and heavy casualties.

All in all a day where the rest of the world was in conflict and we were just in the doldrums.

As it happened on The CBS World News Roundup for July 13, 1984.

Hearing the sad news today of the passing of Geraldine Ferraro, I was reminded of that July in 1984 when Presidential candidate Walter Mondale smashed the glass ceiling and selected the first woman as his vice-Presidential running mate. It was talked about well before and mulled over and the choice was met with a wave of "well, it's about time". Or as she put it:

Geraldine Ferraro: “Thank you vice-President Mondale. Vice-President – it has such a nice ring to it.”

So in memory of her passing and of a pivotal moment in American history, here is Geraldine Ferraro's acceptance speech from July 15, 1984. Rest in Peace.