Martin O'Malley: 'Smarter Government'

He's back!

Martin O'Malley, former mayor of Baltimore, former governor of Maryland, and inexplicably ridiculed (unless you remember those three little words "Ready For Hillary") 2016 presidential candidate, is finally putting out his new book.  

O'Malley's book, 'Smarter Government: Governing for Results in the Information Age,' was supposed to come out in July, but it was somehow delayed.  Now, finally, it hits the book stores and the book sale Web sites on November 5 (Election Day this year, and also my birthday, by the way).  It's all about governing better and more efficiently using geographic information system (GIS) software and how to get better results for everything from reducing crime to providing better public services to even cleaning up damaged and polluted ecosystems like Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. The press release for O'Malley's book explains that it is about "a more effective way to lead that is emerging, enabled by the Information Age. It provides real solutions to real problems using GIS technology and helps develop a management strategy using data that will profoundly change an organization."

In short, it's for wonks.  It doesn't provide exciting reading or offer titillating stories, like a political memoir from Hillary Clinton.  And it doesn't have heroic narratives involving a specific identity-politicized demographic, like Hillary Clinton's new book about strong women (which she wrote with her daughter).  It's just a book on how to govern effectively, written by a boring white guy.  And it's not put out by a prestigious publisher - it was published by Esri Press, the publishing arm of Esri, the California-based company that makes . . . GIS software.  So what?  It's an important book covering an important topic in this age of dysfunctional government.

I told you all that Martin O'Malley had something worthwhile to contribute.  His support for Beto O'Rourke wasn't it.  This is.

And if the top candidates for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination falter and the lower-tier candidates all turn out to be unsatisfactory substitutes . . . might a brokered Democratic National Convention want to consider a certain ex-governor of Maryland as a compromise candidate?

I hope O'Malley gets to talk about his book on a media tour.  Hey, if Hillary gets to do that . . ..