I’m a radical conservationist, and if there were a clear [strong] utilitarian difference between O’Malley and Sanders on sustainability I could flip to O’Malley. [In a “lesser evil” kind of way. And that’s still a highly dangerous path for Greens; we don’t benefit from being seen as insensitive to civil rights.]
But I think the opening of that article mischaracterizes Sanders and Clinton as having “the same weakness,” to make O’Malley out as having an advantage. It looks like Clinton is Clinton-triangulating on petroleum (as is her right as well as her wont), Sanders is a populist who is attached to renewables for economic reasons but not as a centerpiece, and O’Malley is willing to strike out extremely hard for renewables in a policy paper. That is to O’Malley’s credit; it shows courage. But Sanders the populist isn’t exactly anti-renewables; and he seems better positioned on civil rights, and thus more likely to win.
OK, maybe not a bigot. Mass incarceration, though? That still sounds bad.
The comments there have some very angry environmentalists calling the article a puff piece. Enough that I think O’Malley’s a political pragmatist on pollution, not really some amazing conservation hardliner.
Have they seen him? Let’s have a few debates, then we’ll see what Democrats think of him.
Clinton and Biden poll well because people know them. Sanders polls well because he’s a far lefty who created a lot of buzz on social media. All Martin O’Malley is is the most talented executive in the field, which doesn’t really excite people even though it’s probably the most important thing a President needs to succeed. A case he can make at the debates.
I don’t know that they need more, but it really is just inexcusable and makes the Democrats look bad that we’ve already had two GOP debates with a third not too far off and the Democrats haven’t been heard from yet. Just one more debate, held about when the first GOP debate was held, would have been sufficient.
And that is exactly what Hillary’s minions at the DNC (Wasserman-Schultz being the head minion) absolutely don’t want.
They can’t do much about Bernie at this point, but hey, it’s pretty easy to portray him as some left-wing, nutty professor type who shouldn’t be taken seriously.
A well spoken, telegenic, successful ex-governor? Their worst nightmare.
Why does it make them “look bad”? It’s five months until the Iowa caucuses. What’s the point of having a debate now? The Republicans need them because there are a million candidates to whittle down. There are only five Democratic candidates (or six, if Biden runs).
“So far” is irrelevant. We’ll see how he’s doing after the debates.
Here, I’ll give you one: O’Malley will not be polling at zero after the next debate. Either Elendil’s Heir is going to get a pollster’s robocall or the guy’ll drop out. But he will not become HRC’s “worst nightmare” - I don’t think even you can believe that.
And when O’Malley’s numbers go up after the debates start, whose numbers are going to go down as a result?
HRC has shown she can blow it as the “inevitable” candidate once before. I’m not yet convinced it won’t happen again.
Probably Biden’s, since he doesn’t look to be there. *Somebody *has to be the Anybody But Hillary candidate for those voters who need one but think Bernie’s just too weird, but that isn’t going to make him anyone’s “worst nightmare”.
Actually, it doesn’t look like there is an Anybody But Hillary vote out there. It’s more that the conservatives and moderates seem to prefer Clinton, and the liberals prefer Sanders. Which tells me that O’Malley, who is ideologically between Clinton and Sanders, should take a little from both candidate if he increases his support after the debate.
I honestly find it unlikely anyone will be the nominee other than Hillary at this point.
However, it is clear there is a large part of the D base that is very uncomfortable and unhappy with her as a candidate. I doubt Bernie would be polling the way he is in any other year or against a different presumed nominee. All the excitement about the non-existent Biden campaign makes it even more obvious that there is a great deal of discontent with HRC. This bit of news about the Firefighters Union withholding their endorsement in case a Biden run becomes reality can’t be making anyone at the DNC very happy.
What I take away from all of this is that if someone is able to capitalize on this discontent, then HRC will be in big trouble. It happened in 2008 and it could happen again. The first debate will be O’Malley’s shot to make his case. I’ve seen him speak on television and recently in person. He connects with his audience much, much better than she does and doesn’t have the nutty professor persona of Bernie. Will he be able to work it to his advantage? I don’t know. But, as long as Biden stays out, I won’t be surprised if he gets a bigger bump out of this than you expect.
