Earlier today former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced he will be seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.
Here’s O’Malley’s announcement video.
I’m not sure how much of a threat O’Malley poses to Hillary Clinton, because all the polling I’ve seen has O’Malley and Bernie Sanders far, far behind Clinton. Having said that, it’s obviously very early in the race, and as well all saw in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, just because Hillary Clinton is the early favorite doesn’t mean she’ll end up as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Over at DownWithTyranny!, Howie Klein has an excellent writeup of O’Malley’s announcement video.
O’Malley gave a nice speech this morning, a progressive one crafted for the ears of progressive Democratic primary voters, a cohort he and Hillary and perhaps others will have speech writers and pollsters and consultants try to please with various messaging techniques. It’s different from Bernie Sanders.
When O’Malley asks the dramatic, poignant, burning question– “Tell me how it is, that not a single Wall Street CEO was convicted of a crime related to the 2008 economic meltdown. Not. A. Single One.”– a cynic might respond by holding up a mirror for O’Malley and the professional political class. O’Malley– like Clinton and Webb and others who may try to don some newly tailored populist garb– will never be Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders isn’t crafting a progressive message for primary voters– that can be abandoned in the general or in the White House. Bernie Sanders’ entire life in the political arena created the agenda and the ideas that careerists like O’Malley are trying to tap into.
I’m not saying his message yesterday was bad. It was nice. It just doesn’t tell us much about who Martin O’Malley really is or what he would do as president. His own record in public service doesn’t lead in a natural way to that message– not the way Bernie’s did last week.
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