Yes. I suspect once people see him on the debate stages with Hillary and Bernie, his stock is going to steadily rise.
THat’s probably true of even Webb and Chaffee though. They’ve got like 20% name recognition. Being on the debate stage will help all the candidates not named Clinton minus serious gaffes.
O’Malley unveils an ambitious climate change plan: USA TODAY - Breaking News and Latest News Today
Sanders’ plan is better: carbon tax. Carbon permits are a recipe for graft.
In a vacuum, sure. But in today’s America you can’t say “tax” without every Republican in earshot yelling “gotcha!” and launching a press conference to denounce you.
Carbon permits could be handled in an open, transparent way, and I’m sure that’s what O’Malley intends.
What plan do any of your guys offer?
O’Malley is a proponent of good government, so I’m sure he does. But Congress might have other ideas. Getting reelected isn’t easy and favors bring campaign cash.
Also, a carbon tax can be done as part of tax reform. I’m sure many Republicans would jump at a carbon tax that lowers the income tax.
Personally, I think that cap-and-trade is slightly better than a carbon tax, since it allows the free-market actors to interact with each other directly, and it incentivizes ways of getting the carbon out of the atmosphere in addition to not putting more in. But that said, either one is far superior to doing nothing, so I’ll support whichever one is more politically viable.
Carbon tax. There is zero support among Republicans for cap and trade, but a few, like Bob Corker, do like a carbon tax, and many more would take a carbon tax in exchange for lower income tax rates.
But really, no such legislation will be taken up in Congress as long as Republicans control it, so what a Democratic candidate wants is of no consequence on this subject unless he has serious political skills and can work it into a tax reform package. But the Democratic President would have to accept lower taxes on the rich. This is where priorities come into play. Liberals say that climate change is the most urgent issue of our day. If that’s true, then accepting lower taxes on the rich in exchange for higher taxes on everyone in the form of carbon taxes should be acceptable since it’s the only way to get climate change legislation of any sort as long as Republicans control Congress. Sanders wouldn’t do it, no way, no how. For Sanders, he’s made it clear that inequality is his top priority. O’Malley I’m not sure.
O’Malley courts Puerto Rican supporters: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/07/28/omalley-to-campaign-in-puerto-rico-a-debt-strapped-territory-thats-drawing-attention/
You say that like it’s a *good *thing. Not to mention a permanent one.
WEll, if you want to improve the Democratic brand, O’Malley probably is the best person to do it. The Democrats’ biggest problems right now have to do with the same old problems they’ve always had: voters think they are in favor of big boondoggle government projects. O’Malley has a record of making sure government works as intended. So I’d bet that an O’Malley Presidency would do more to dislodge Republicans from Congress than a Clinton Presidency. If Bill couldn’t do it, Hillary has no chance.
I’m inclined to agree. I want a President who can actually get good stuff done. Clinton is so loathed and distrusted by the Republican Right, I suspect she would have even a harder time with Congress than Obama. O’Malley doesn’t have that problem (not yet, at least).
I agree with the perception, but IMO, a politician’s record tells us more about what they’ll do than CW or their rhetoric. Clinton has a decent bipartisan history. O’Malley we don’t know much about in that regard, because Maryland is a deep blue state. He’s not used to working with hardcore conservatives to get things done.
I think he’ll govern better than Clinton in the sense of making the government work better, because that’s an important part of his record. But as far as getting laws passed, it seems that the main thing O’Malley did was raise taxes. Which simply won’t be happening in Congress.
He successfully worked to have the death penalty abolished in Maryland, to recognize gay marriage, tighten gun control and protect Chesapeake Bay. Tax hikes were the least of it.
I’m only paying a little attention to O’Malley (or really any of the candidates) at this point, but this made my ears perk up. Can you provide any links with details on his role in this and his views on the death penalty? Did he take an active, out-in-front role, or did he just kind of glom on to an initiative started in the Legislature or something?
I don’t mean that as a loaded question – I just don’t know much about the guy. If he went along with a movement to abolish the DP, that’s fine and all. But if he was a leader in getting it done, that bumps him up quite a bit in my view. I think Clinton is still a DP supporter, but I’m not sure. I’d like to support someone who is actively against it.
He didn’t just sign somebody else’s bill. He had been pushing it since 2009.
O’Malley didn’t make the ACA website work. That would have been a good time to showcase your ability to make government work better, if you are into things like making government work better. Instead his protege dropped the ball and Hogan laughed all the way to Annapolis. As far as I can tell he is polling poorly in Maryland, not exactly good when your supporters are making excuses about poor name recognition keeping you down in the polls.
The Bay, a perennial topic in Maryland, will always be protected. He did close to nothing on this front. He was basically Bob Ehrlich on the Bay except his big idea was to increase taxes to help the Bay. Big surprise! That’s like saying Hosni Mubarek was great because he protected the Pyramids.
The gay marriage thing happened as the wave swept the nation. He wasn’t out front on that. Obama actually did that because when he switched up on it, polls in MD switched.
Gun control? Really? You have heard of Maryland before, right? We couldn’t get guns under Ehrlich, now we need a “class”. Only difference.
Hogan was elected by repeatedly saying “Taxes”. That’s all it took. Marylanders know what O’Malley is about. That’s why they rejected him this last election, and in presidential polls.
He’s done. A non-factor that never was a factor.
Was O’Malley running in the last election?