(This post is a combined, expanded and revised version of two earlier separate posts on this blog, both since deleted.)
I thought I'd take a few moments - well, more than a few moments - on Martin O'Malley's fifty-fifth birthday to compile an enemies list for anyone who supported O'Malley for President. This is sort of a greatest-hits compilation (and Martin O'Malley did indeed take a lot of hits) of anti-O'Malley swipes that I've written about here already, along with a couple of bonus cuts. But I thought it would be convenient to feature them here all in one post, so that we can focus on what - and whom - we're up against.
I'm not going to do any more than mention David Simon, the creator of the Baltimore-set TV series "The Wire," because "The Wire" was meant to be art, and his Mayor Tommy Carcetti, as I pointed out before, wasn't solely based on O'Malley. But I have a lot of other folks - pundits, mostly - on this list, and should O'Malley somehow manage to catch on in the 2020 presidential election cycle, we need to remember these critics and their slights and be prepared to do battle against them for our candidate. So here they are:
Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson laid into O'Malley for his criminal-justice record as mayor of Baltimore the moment O'Malley announced his presidential candidacy in May 2015, saying he had a lot to answer for. He later endorsed Hillary Clinton, apparently because she was chummy with rappers while O'Malley was just another clueless white guy with a guitar.
Nia-Malika Henderson. When Hillary Clinton was at a low point early in the pre-primary/caucus season, the Washington Post's Henderson rhetorically asked, "Well, who else is there - Martin O'Malley?", laughing at her own mention of his name. I actually put her on my beautiful-women picture blog once? Was I crazy?
Tamara Keith. During that same low point in Hillary's career, the National Public Radio correspondent said that if Hillary couldn't overcome her e-mail issues, Democrats were in trouble because "there's no one else." This wasn't just a swipe at O'Malley; it was a swipe at Bernie Sanders, who was making inroads with the Democratic base at the time.
Joanna Rothkopf. The Jezebel.com commentator ridiculed O'Malley for his appearance on "The View," during which he played some Taylor Swift songs on his guitar, saying that there was a place in hell for O'Malley and any white man who has the gall to play a guitar in public. She turned one of his greatest personal assets into a liability; pretty soon everyone was making fun of O'Malley's music hobby.
Molly Ball. Less than a year after the Atlantic (now at Time, since October 2017) writer wrote a fair and balanced profile on O'Malley, she almost forgot while on TV to mention his participation in a November 2015 MSNBC presidential candidates' forum, then she pretended to forget his name. Less than two weeks later, when CBS newsman John Dickerson cut O'Malley off during a presidential debate he was moderating, Ball said that he showed his ability to be President.
She was talking about Dickerson.
Amy Walter. I already knew that Tamara Keith pretended that O'Malley didn't exist when she failed to mention his presence at that MSNBC presidential candidates' forum on the PBS NewsHour the Monday evening after. But Amy Walter didn't mention him either.
Trevor Noah. He had O'Malley on "The Daily Show" and told him, "I loved you in 'The Wire.'" When O'Malley was the second of the three major Democratic presidential candidates on a CNN forum, Noah called him "the bathroom break" between Sanders and Hillary.
Diane Rehm. The respected radio host scheduled an interview with O'Malley in her studio, but he got caught in traffic on the way there. Though O'Malley apologized for his tardiness despite the fact that it was beyond his control, Rehm was in no mood to accept his apology and told him so in no uncertain terms.
Chuck Todd. Todd interviewed O'Malley in October 2015 on MSNBC while waiting for President Obama to go live to make some sort of announcement, and Todd was visibly annoyed at having to do so; he was like, "Who is this clown running for President?" and seemed peeved at Obama for not starting on time and thus forcing him to endure the former Maryland governor.
Jonathan Capehart. Almost forgot this one! The boyish-looking Washington Post op-ed writer opined in 2015 that O'Malley had what he called a John Edwards problem - like the disgraced former North Carolina senator, who turned out to be a horrible human being, O'Malley seemed too perfect to be true, suggesting there was something very wrong with him that we didn't know about. I commented on this before. O'Malley had been compared to John F. Kennedy, who actually got to be President, when he first started his campaign, then he got downgraded to being compared to his mentor Gary Hart by people who thought he could break out of the second-tier Democratic pack like Hart did in 1984 - with the qualifier that Hart never became President, so why bother with O'Malley anyway? But then, by downgrading O'Malley even more and equating him to a pure scumbag, Capehart incised the unkindest cut of all.
Ed Schultz. The former MSNBC commentator ridiculed O'Malley on his podcast for asking for equal time in what turned out to be O'Malley's last presidential debate before dropping out of the race, saying that nobody tuned in to watch him, and, as I wrote once before, I quit listening to his podcast after realizing he'd just called me a nobody. I should have known that Big Eddie looked down on O'Malley when he'd earlier referred to one 2016 Republican presidential candidate (I can't remember whom) who was so laughable, "even Martin O'Malley can beat this guy." Even? Needless to say (since I already said it), I still haven't gone back to listening to Schultz's podcast since. Schultz has since joined the Kremlin propaganda channel Russia Today's RT America outlet.
CNN. The whole damn Clinton News Network. As soon as O'Malley announced that he was suspending his presidential campaign, CNN enthusiastically announced the news - "HE'S OUT!" Except that, if you watched CNN, for the most part you'd never have known he was in.
Jake Tapper. When O'Malley compared Trump supporters to Nazis and Klansmen on Twitter just before Trump's insinuation and declared, "Now we fight," CNN's Tapper reacted to O'Malley's tweet as if the former Maryland governor had lost his mind ("What exactly do you mean by 'fight' here?"). The melee in Charlottesville, Virginia over Confederate statues in August 2017 pretty much vindicated O'Malley, but Tapper, as far as I know, has not contacted him to apologize.
Edward Issac-Dovere. The Politico pundit slammed O'Malley for trying to be taken seriously by paying for a 2020 presidential poll in Iowa, a poll O'Malley . . . won.
Ed Kilgore. The New York writer made a list of the many possible "firsts" in the Presidency that the Democrats have among their presidential prospects for 2020 - first woman, first black woman, first Hispanic, first of many things - such as Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, who is part Jewish, part Mexican and part Italian, as well as the first sitting mayor of a big city - and then concluded with this left-handed compliment about the man who would be the first Marylander (and the first Washington, D.C. native) to serve as President:
"Martin O’Malley, if he runs for president again, would be a former mayor, but not a sitting mayor; he'd be an Irish Catholic, but not the first Irish Catholic; and he’d be a practicing musician, though not the first practicing musician (at least according to the famous drawing hanging on my wall showing Harry Truman tickling the ivories). I suppose if he is the Democratic nominee, he'd have to be satisfied with being the 46th white male to serve as president. If he were to dispatch Donald Trump, that would suit most Democrats of every stripe just fine."
Ed, I'm sure he'd be satisfied with just being President.
And by the way, Ed, though O'Malley would be the forty-sixth President, he'd be the forty-fourth white male to serve as President. You forgot about Barack Obama (unless you counted him as white because of his mom) and you counted Grover Cleveland, the only President to serve two nonconsecutive terms, twice.
Stay classy, Ed.
Dishonorable mention goes to all of the trolls on O'Malley's Twitter page who ridicule him even when he takes a popular stand - like opposing Net neutrality repeal - the Hillbots on those Democratic Facebook pages who always responded to my pro-O'Malley comments with "Martin who?", and, of course, the anonymous commenter on my blog who told me that, because I was a Martin O'Malley supporter, I was "obviously an idiot." (I didn't publish his comment, of course.)
There are probably more folks I could mention, but I just don't have enough bandwidth.
Remember these slights and the smart-ass people who made them, just as Darius, the great Persian king, remembered who was responsible for the burning of Sardis in the Ionian Wars. Although the Persians defeated a force from Athens that came to Sardis in Asia Minor to foment rebellion against Persian rule, the Athenians left the city in flames, and Darius had a servant remind him thrice daily whom to get revenge against - "Master, remember the Athenians." O'Malley supporters, remember these haters and doubters. Darius may never have been avenged, but we will be, and so will our candidate. We will put Martin O'Malley in the White House in January 2021, and then, by giving the new President our help and support, we will make America great again.
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