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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Martin O’Malley Goes to Iowa

Open Thread: Martin O’Malley Goes to Iowa

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O’Malley has a reputation as a plugger, and it’s serving him well in a state where the local Democrats have been hungering for some attention. Here’s CNN:

…[I]t’s in Iowa where O’Malley must stake his ground. Failure here would almost certainly doom his campaign. But if he manages to do better than expected — or even stage an upset — O’Malley could emerge as a real challenger for Clinton.

Given his reception here this past weekend, there could be a sliver of an opening.

After O’Malley delivered a red meat political speech to a room packed with union workers, Keefer left with several O’Malley political signs tucked under her arms.

“He said a lot of things that I wanted to hear and got me all revved up to get out there and get the vote out for Democrats,” said Keefer, who noted that O’Malley had given her second thoughts about who she might support in next year’s Democratic caucus. “He was wonderful tonight. Just wonderful and I never heard of him.”

A similar scene played out several times over O’Malley’s two-day trip to Iowa this past weekend, as he criss-crossed the state, meeting with influential early Democratic voters. He entered many rooms as a blank slate and often walked out to favorable reviews…

“When you start off as potential candidate for president and your name recognition is low, you have to just go from county to county, from town to town and engage people in order to change that around,” O’Malley said in an interview with CNN following a Democratic meeting in Tipton. “I guess another way to say it is this: Look, it is not unusual for there to be an inevitable front-runner early in a contest who has fantastic name recognition, and is therefore inevitable right up until he or she is no longer inevitable.”

O’Malley said that’s why he spent two days meeting with Democratic voters in both large and small settings in a state that can propel a candidate to the top of the leader board…

At least one reporter, at the Daily Iowan, seems to have been convinced… maybe even a little swept away:

Martin O’Malley can work a room, they say: Whether it’s an expansive hotel ballroom with several hundred in attendance or a dimly lit restaurant and bar over pizza.

He’s careful and precise in his articulation of speech and “someone you can believe in.”

He packs the executive leadership often craved by presidential voters: eight years at the helm of Maryland government and before that as mayor of Baltimore, where, supporters say, he reversed the Eastern industrial city’s decline.

Then there’s his dashing smile, an appetite for tech (he’s an avid user of Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter), and youthful age.

Oh, and he’s made trips to Iowa a top priority, something that presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton hasn’t.

O’Malley has the ability to captivate the nation and rise from a relatively unknown to a political juggernaut as John F. Kennedy did in the 1960s, more than 50 interviews with The Daily Iowan show…

Ed Kilgore, at Washington Monthly, is somewhat more skeptical:

As I’ve noted a couple of times here, Martin O’Malley’s “lane” in a probable primary challenge to Hillary Clinton is obviously to her left, which is not necessarily where he’s been for a large part of his political career. But supply seems to be meeting demand a bit…

… [A]s you should know by now if you read this blog, Iowa Democrats, for all their virtues, do not always speak in good faith on the subject of Hillary Clinton. Many of those cheering O’Malley’s understated digs at HRC were actually cheering the prospect of a competitive nominating process that will bring money and attention to Iowa like spring rain. Some may turn out to be entirely “ready for Hillary” when the deal goes down, and could ultimately break Martin O’Malley’s heart. But even as he tries to make them hear things he’s not actually quite saying about the overwhelming front-runner, they’re trying to make him hear support he may not have in order to lure him into an open and candidacy. We’ll soon see if all these voices find echoes.

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  1. 1.

    Pogonip

    Since we’re short on pupdates, how about a duckdate? Retrieverman.net’s duck eggs are hatching! They’re not as cute as Lovey and Thurston, but beggars can’t be choosers.

    And Christian will be at Retrieverman’s house with a lap full of ducklings in 5…4…3…2…1… (Hi, Christian!)

  3. 3.

    Xantar

    Many of those cheering O’Malley’s understated digs at HRC were actually cheering the prospect of a competitive nominating process that will bring money and attention to Iowa like spring rain.

    So it’s self-centered, but a competitive nominating process isn’t a bad thing in any case. We desperately need it even if Hillary ends up being the nominee.

  8. 8.

    eemom

    I just want someone, anyone, to announce that they’re running for president, so I don’t have to see Cruz’s mug everywhere I look. Is that too much to ask?

  9. 9.

    jl

    O’Malley is already testing HRC. Saw on a recent post he is giving out O;Malley beer cooler campaign gear. HRC, what you got to answer that?

    And the high class acronym for O’Malley is MJO? That sounds almost as good as HRC.
    MO’M would not be good, for president, at least.

  10. 10.

    mai naem mobile

    I hope if Hillary ends up being POTUS she finds a decent position for OMalley within her administration.It isn’t like the Dems have a bunch of ex-governors to throw away.

  13. 13.

    fuckwit

    Is it wrong that I’m so cynical, that just from the first scan of this, I’m bracing myself for the guy to do a John Edwards flameout and we’ll discover he’s been humping his secretary the whole time, or something similar?

    Maybe he’s the real deal. Who knows. But I have to say I reflexively cringe at almost everything these days.

  17. 17.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    My delightful ADA today reduced my dumb ass husbands speeding ticket to a rear seat belt violation resulting in a $10 fine as opposed to a boat load of court costs. I suppose it helps that it was is last day before his national guard unit deploys to Germany and he is going to be gone for a year.

  18. 18.

    jl

    @mai naem mobile: Well, FactCheck says the veep can serve an indefinite number of terms. So, if Handsome Ol’ Joe wants the job, I guess.

    I doubt HRC would be as tolerant of the undisciplined Biden as BHO has been, though.

    And I think Biden will run, even if he knows he won’t last long, probably just to get his message out, whatever it is. If it is more progressive economic policy, fine with me.

    And Biden and HRC would make the ticket too old. Way too old.

    V.P. Term Limits
    http://www.factcheck.org/2008/04/vp-term-limits/

  19. 19.

    fuckwit

    @efgoldman: It’s too bad the Charlie guys are all dead now. They could do a tasteless cartoon of Cruz flying the Republican Party airplane into a mountain, while saying repeatedly “I put my trust in god”. Bonus is if the cartoon includes JEB! and others pounding on the locked cockpit door trying to get in.

  20. 20.

    David Koch

    @fuckwit: I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

    I’ve been reading Daily Kos lately, and everyone there tells me Bernie Sanders is the front runner. If Sanders runs he wins, they insist.

    They make a very persuasive case. They say if an unknown skinny black guy with a funny name that no one had ever heard of could be Clinton, then someone who’s white would have no problem beating her. It’s hard to argue with that.

    I guess O’Malley is simply auditioning to be part of Sanders’ cabinet.

  21. 21.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @David Koch: I think FLOTUS would rather roll around naked in nettles rather than run another campaign. I think she is looking forward to life outside of the Whitehouse.

  22. 22.

    jl

    @David Koch:

    Michelle Obama? I would like her to get into politics.

    Probably too soon. I have a feeling that if O’Malley tried to name her as veep candidate, the Obama kids would hunt him down and tear him apart with their bare hands. Just a hunch I have about the kids’ patience with any more bigshot politicking from either of their folks, But give her time.

  24. 24.

    jl

    @Culture of Truth:

    ” Is America really ready for two Irish-American Presidents in a row? ”

    WTF, was that O’ Baharma handing out beer cooler campaign gear too? I never got one, and I worked my ass off. And I’m half Irish.

  25. 25.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I has assumed this was a straight party line vote

    Steven Dennis @ StevenTDennis · 10m 10 minutes ago
    Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against eliminating the estate tax. Joe Manchin the only Democrat to vote aye.

    Obviously, I blame Cole.

  26. 26.

    Bex

    The soon to be former congressman Aaron Schock has resigned with “humility” while comparing himself to Lincoln.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    [. . .] his last day before his national guard unit deploys to Germany and he is going to be gone for a year.

    Whoa, that’s a pretty big bombshell to drop at the end of a comment. This is a big fucking deal, isn’t it?

  32. 32.

    PeakVT

    @schrodinger’s cat: the horse race stuff, especially the very early and very speculative stuff, is very boring. But, remember, our major media are lazy, and doing a puff piece about a potential candidate is easier than a lot of other kinds of reporting.

  33. 33.

    Eric U.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Time magazine had a profile of Manchin a while back. He is one deeply stupid person. And the Time magazine person wasn’t any better. At least the Time people have an excuse, they have to be all “both sides do it” or be looking for a job. Manchin is a moron. I don’t even think he’s smart enough to be pandering

  35. 35.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Eric U.: Yeah, I remember seeing him interviewed a few years ago and I was struck by his earnestness and his very confident stupidity. Which is not, of course, rare in the Senate.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: I had to read the comment twice, myself. I’m pretty sure it’s the ADA that is headed off to germany for a year, not her husband.

  41. 41.

    Tree With Water

    Anyone that challenges Clinton will have my full attention, and that of millions more. Truman is said to have felt annoyed about Adlai Stevenson’s public equivocations about running for the presidency. That’s how I feel about Bernie Sanders. I would counsel Bernie to fish or get off the pot.

  42. 42.

    de stijl

    I would counsel Bernie to fish or get off the pot.

    My advice would be to shit and cut bait.

    C’mon, you’ve got both hands free, so why not do something productive with your time?

  44. 44.

    moonbat

    Ed Kilgore’s skepticism probably arises from the fact that he is pretty openly in HRC’s corner, having ties with the last Clinton White House. I don’t mind it. I mean, it’s not like he tries to hide it. But I also don’t go to him for unbiased political analysis of HRC challengers. He’s been in the bag from Day 1.

    Other than that: so there is a good retail politician out there articulating positions to the left of HRC? Good! About time. Let’s have a real race. I don’t know why the Dems have suddenly become so afraid of democracy. All this talk about how we all have to get behind the front runner right now so we don’t end up with a President Cruz is silly.

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