He's Back . . . Again.

Just when I thought Martin O'Malley's story had an ending, and a happy one at that . . . the semi-legend continues. 😉 

O'Malley resigned as commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) in late November, after only a year and change on the job.  He instituted a number of reforms at the SSA and streamlined the bureaucracy in his brief tenure as commissioner before deciding to move on - a decision he wouldn't have made, I'm sure, if Kamala Harris had won the presidential election.

Instead, O'Malley is running for the job many of his supporters - all twelve of us - were promoting him for in 2016 when Trump won the White House the first time . . . chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

On paper, O'Malley looks like a shoo-in for DNC chair.  He's held three executive positions in public office (mayor, governor, SSA commissioner), he knows how to repeat a message and not make it sound stale when you've heard it for the 2,314th time, he has appealing policies, and he has a solid record of achievement.  But he has stiff competition from Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chairman Ken Martin, who is known for his communication skills and his desire to reach out to as many different demographic groups as possible and make everyone in the Democratic Party understand the stakes they have in ensuring the party's success, and Ben Wikler, the chairman of the state Democratic Party in Wisconsin, where he's had big successes in a state more politically divided than the country is in getting Democrats elected statewide.  Wikler, for his part, believes that the Democrats need to follow the Republicans' example and start "a nationwide permanent campaign, with a battle plan and resources for every state and territory in the country."

Also, both Martin and Wikler are younger than O'Malley, which is a 180-degree flip from when he was the youngest 2016 Democratic presidential candidate among the top three contenders and was shamed for what was perceived to be ageism-charged slights against the (much) more popular Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.  At 62, O'Malley isn't a senior yet, but as the one contender among the top three candidates for the DNC chair who's old enough to have a grandchild in fifth grade, he certainly looks the part of an aging patriarch.

I'm not a Democrat - I prefer to maintain politically independent, even in New Jersey, a closed-primary state - so I will not express a preference for anyone in the DNC chair campaign.  But I will wish O'Malley well.  And may the best candidate win.

Which is another way of saying that I hope Marianne Williamson - another DNC chair candidate - doesn't get it.     

The picture of Martin O'Malley shown above is a screenshot from a YouTube interview he did on one of the site's many podcasts.  Notice that, immediately behind O'Malley's left shoulder, is a portrait of him . . . unfinished, much like Gilbert Stuart's unfinished portrait of George Washington, and, despite being framed, propped up against the wall, not yet ready for proper hanging.  How symbolic.  Because, contrary to what many people may have thought many times before, Martin O'Malley's story is a story that has yet to be completed.