CNN reports on O’Malley’s visit to Iowa. I have to agree with the Iowans interviewed – even if Hillary is your favorite, strong opponents will be very important to sharpen her for what will no doubt be a bracing Presidential contest. While O’Malley’s resume’ is certainly very respectable, it doesn’t really match hers, so he’ll have to bring on his list of accomplishments and how they apply at the Federal level, and then bring about the perception that he has experience in foreign policy. I haven’t seen anything on that subject, yet. Hillary should be able to use that for some good leverage unless he names a VP with some real chops.
Quentin Misiag at The Daily Iowan Ethics & Politics Initiative provides the view from Iowa:
O’Malley has slowly but surely chipped away at Rodham Clinton’s political gravitational pull, climbing from a inadequate public speaker to prime presidential product, should he announce a Democratic run.
Diane Bolte has watched O’Malley mature, even before the closing of the 2014 midterms, when she saw him at a fundraiser in Clinton.
“I’m ready for somebody different,” said Bolte, a 2nd District Democratic Central Committee Executive Board member, wincing when asked if somebody different meant an alternative to Rodham Clinton. “He’s somebody you can believe in.”
Certainly there will be a segment of the voters who would prefer neither another Clinton Administration nor a far right GOP Administration – they would provide a base from which to build a campaign which might capture a VP nomination – and possibly the Democratic nod should Hillary stumble or – to the surprise of everyone – choose not to run. The Iowan piece ends with this:
Presidential historian and political pundit Tom Whalen, who specializes in the tenure and assassination of JFK, said the two have the same charisma, particularly in relation to domestic policies such as income equality.
O’Malley has worked to establish himself as a crisis manager while governor and mayor, as JFK did during the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis, Whalen said.
Whalen said O’Malley leads JFK’s early presidential career in at least one definitive area: speech delivery.
“JFK wasn’t really JFK until he gave that famous inaugural speech,” he said.
Now there’s an invocation of myth.
