A lot of attention has been focused on the Republican race to be the party’s nominee for the 2016 presidential election. Less attention has been paid to the events on the Democratic side because of what seems to be a media consensus that that nomination is Hillary Clinton’s for the taking and until such time as she announces that she is not interested in running, there is no point talking about it.
I am not so sure about this conventional wisdom. Apart from my own unease at the possibility of her candidacy, it is not clear to me that she has such a clear shot to the nomination and so it might be good to see what the alternatives are. One such person is Martin O’Malley. After serving two terms as mayor of Baltimore, he was elected governor of Maryland in 2006 and was easily re-elected in 2010, defying the Republican electoral tide that year. He is prevented by term limits from running again and thus leaves office in January 2015. He is expected to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.
His political views are liberal and pretty decent. Although a Catholic, he defied a request from the archbishop of Baltimore to oppose same-sex marriage. He is an opponent of capital punishment and signed a bill that repealed the death penalty in Maryland for all future capital crimes and has said that he will consider commuting to life imprisonment the sentences of the five death penalty inmates already on death row.
He appeared last week on the Sunday talk shows and you can gauge him for yourself as he talks about Republican ideas to cut programs that help the poor.
Here’s more from the same interview.
So while he says many of the right things, we have seen so many times before with liberal Democrats as presidents that the way they campaign and the way they govern can be quite different, so we need to treat him with caution.
Less attention has been paid to the events on the Democratic side because of what seems to be a media consensus that that nomination is Hillary Clinton’s for the taking and until such time as she announces that she is not interested in running, there is no point talking about it.
Anybody remember how Clinton was anointed by the lamestream media in 2007 as the Democrat’s presumptive 2008 candidate. How did that work out? The big problem that O’Malley and for that matter, Cuomo, Warren, Gillibrand, Schweitzer, Warner, et al face is raising money for a campaign against Clinton. Of course, Obama was able to do it so maybe it’s not out of the question.
As far as policy is concerned, I very much like Martin O’Malley. I’ve heard him speak, and he’s quite charming and even has a Bill Clinton-esque cadence in his speech.
He’s also a fighter. If you watch his debates with Ehrlich, he is not friendly (I mean, he’s a politician, so he’s not too unfriendly). It looks more like he wants to settle the debate in the boxing ring. And Ehrlich was an absolute Republican Tool, so I don’t mind that one bit.
His speech at the DNC was the dumbest thing ever, though. Maybe his speechwriter had the day off or something.
In the US, does it matter what the President believes, or says? The engine of government is fueled by money. Congress has been petrified by gerrymandering. The media is in the bag. It’s not candidates who should be treated with caution, but the system they operate in.
Actually, yes it does. Mostly because of judicial appointments, but also the way the administration prioritizes and handles things. I mean, do you really think Al Gore would have gone to war with Iraq? Really?
The President doesn’t have that much power with laws, gerrymandering, and corruption. But the power of the executive branch is mostly in other things anyway.
Re doublereed
After he defeated Ehrlich who was the incumbent governor, he was interviewed and he candidly told the interviewer that if Ehrlich had run as a moderate Rethuglican, in the mode of icon Mac Mathias, he would have won.
doublereed @4:
I don’t know. Al Gore was never President. Actual (as opposed to virtual) Presidents have to deal with the horrendous reality of US politics.
Further to my #6: I do know that Gore picked Lieberman as his running mate.
…we have seen so many times before with liberal Democrats as presidents ….
So many? Have there really been that many liberal Democrats (as opposed to barely tolerable non-Republicans) elected President that we can discern a clear trend?
I would hope O’Malley runs. Clinton makes Obama look like a moderate, not the right-leaning conservative he is.
@Rob
While I agree with you that US policy is pre-determined in many aspects, might I remind you how much work the GWB administration went to in order to justify the Iraq war. I genuinely think that a different administration might not have pushed so hard for that particular war.
Then again, I’m not an American or a US voter, so my perspective is inevitably one of an outsider.
sosw and doublereed: You’re right, it does still matter whether the President is a Democrat or a Republican. I just wonder how the differences between two Democratic candidates would translate into real policy change. The constraints seem too daunting.
And now Ehrlich writes republican hack columns for the Baltimore Sun. And I don’t even think that’s going over too well. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
I kinda wish Ed Brayton would tear him apart, but he’s just so unknown nowadays XD