Martin O’Malley Wants It

New Republic headline: Martin O’Malley Just Jumped to the Left of Elizabeth Warren. Your Move, Hillary.

Speaking at Harvard University on Thursday night, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley cranked up the pressure on Hillary Clinton by calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage and voicing his opposition to President Barack Obama’s massive trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership.

“As we gather here tonight,” he said, “wealth and economic power in the United States of America have now been concentrated in the hands of the very few as almost never before in the history of our country.” …

… O’Malley’s comments are a reminder that other Democratic candidates besides Warren can put pressure on Clinton. While few, if any, political analysts think the former Maryland governor has a real shot at the nomination, he can certainly force Clinton into difficult positions. That’s good. She should have to answer questions on the minimum wage, the TPP, and other controversial issues in the Democratic Party.

IMO the only reason O’Malley or other potential candidates don’t have a “real shot” is that the media won’t cover them, because the media have collectively decided Hillary Clinton has it in the bag. And if she has it in the bag, it’s because the media have decided she does. Argh.

14 thoughts on “Martin O’Malley Wants It

  1. Not so sure, Maha. O’Malley May be a real rising star. My instincts are telling me Hillary may not be the slam dunk some may think. That said, if this thing turns into Jeb vs Hillary, I may start doing cow pie mushrooms on a daily basis. Never tried them, but I hear they take away the pain.

  2. I think that if O’Malley does well in the first couple of primaries lots of people will gravitate to him. I keep running into people on the Web who believe HRC is the only candidate who can beat the Republicans, and I think if anything she’d be more vulnerable than someone like O’Malley.

  3. I was in Maryland when O’Malley was Governor; and, he was very personable and cleaned up a mess made by a Repug Governor before him. I voted for him for both terms. I agree with your last paragraph and wish there were some way to combat that. I especially agree with “Argh”.

    And, don’t you think that if O’Malley weren’t into Celtic rock, he would lose his shamrock.

  4. O’Malley couldn’t get his hand-picked successor elected as Governor- in Maryland.

    Good luck with that…

  5. The MSM is just lifting Hillary up, so that they can shoot her down.
    She’s a familiar target.
    What I do like about her, is that she’s taken abuse from the conservatives and the MSM for almost a quarter of a century, and she keeps on tickin’!

    From what I know, I like O’Malley!
    He gave a good speech at the 2012 Democratic convention.
    Of course, neither he nor Hillary can match the last two Democratic Presidents, when it comes to speechifyin’!
    Bill and Barack set a very high bar!!!

  6. “The MSM is just lifting Hillary up, so that they can shoot her down”

    Hey they got to make a show of it otherwise how they gonna sell the soap? Gulag I’ve noticed you have two different avatars, are you the real gulag or his evil twin?

  7. I guess this new triangular and angry avatar with a monocle, is me now.

    No more perplexed and/or bemused yellow circle!

    What’s funny, is that when I write a comment now, I don’t see that Nazi-lookin’ triangle – I see a smiley octagon with sharp points.
    But, when I click to “Submit Comment,” it shows up as my new triangular Col Klink!
    “HOGAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

  8. I used to be into Celtic music a lot. It’s hard not to be progressive and on the right side of the people, when you’re listening to it. It’s still the only kind of music that consistently gives me the old lump in the throat and misty eyes.

    Does anyone remember a band called “The New St. George?” They only produced one album, but, it sent me on a odd journey into (trying to) play free reed instruments. I still have a few old Lachenals sitting around.

  9. Completely OT:
    Yesterday, I went to our local supermarket – a Hannaford, which I like, because I see the same people there year after year, which means to me, that the employees are treated at the very least, semi-decently – and, after using the little motorized cart to make my purchases, since you can’t take it outside, I transferred my bags to the normal cart. and put them in my car.

    And I drove off.
    But when I got home, I wanted to get my cane to leave my car to get the mail. I discovered that there was NO CANE!!
    OY!!!!

    I turned around, and went right back.

    I saw some young guy collecting the carts, and asked him if he found a cane in the last few minutes?
    Nope.
    The guy was good enough to go in, and check with customer service.
    Still, no cane.
    I went home, and called the store after a couple of hours.
    Still, no cane.
    If I saw a cane in a shopping-cart, I’d either leave it where it was, or, take it to the customer service desk.
    It would never occur to me, to take is home…

    I hope the person who found it, needs it more than I do!

  10. It doesn’t speak well for Hillary if she has to be corralled into taking a position. Either she knows what she stands for and is sincere in voicing her position, or she’s just continuing in being a political chameleon. Seems to me that it’s not a complex issue to understand the plight of the so called middle class.
    Either she means what her political ads are conveying or she’s only providing lip service.

  11. Spot on, Swami. For so long our politics has been a hall of mirrors and a lot of us have grown so accustomed to disappointment that it hardly seems to register.

    Regardless of the faults that HRC or whoever might have, the alternative fills me with absolute dread. We grew up in a nation of promise and now we live in a nation of promises, most of which are exchanged or discarded to fit the moment.

  12. Regardless of anyone’s position on HRC, the more of her positions she nails down now, the longer the ReTeaVangeliKlan will have to attack and distort and fictionalize and fantasize. Demanding she adhere to $15 per hour minimum wage, for example, is just going to set up people currently making $12 per hour against her for wanting to start people out above the salary they have spent time working to achieve. I am not saying that is right, just that it is probable, and not constructive. If we got $10 with a 3 year plan to come to $12 we would be doing well. Why crucify ourselves in advance over a number we cannot guarantee? There has never been a doubling of minimum wage, which is what $15 amounts to, IIRC.

  13. Like every president since Eisenhower , he will be rolled by the military-industrial complex, but maybe that can’t be helped. Ike knew how the military services worked and having presidents who don’t know only guarantees that we will use the Department of “Defense” for ongoing projects of power projection for the balance of our days.

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