Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is acting like a presidential candidate. He’s checking all the boxes. He is apparently a prodigious fundraiser. He has an impressively progressive record. I am unaware of any major skeletons in his closet. What I don’t know is whether or not he has the discipline, skill, and charisma to be an effective candidate on the national stage.
Obviously, Hillary Clinton would be the equivalent of Mt. Everest as an obstacle to winning the nomination, but she going to have build her team almost from scratch. On the other hand, I don’t think there will be the same kind of progressive resistance to her campaign that we saw in 2008. O’Malley can’t grab a bunch of voters simply because he didn’t vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Most of Obama’s coalition is reconciled with the Clintons at this point, at least on a personal level.
If Clinton doesn’t run, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo does, I could see progressives rallying around O’Malley as the best option to derail Cuomo.
What do you think?
