Now that John Delaney has quit his presidential campaign (much to my relief), Martin O'Malley is set to regain his position as the most disrespected Democrat from Maryland. He recently told the Guardian that he is fearful of Bernie Sanders' rapid rise in the campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination and sees him as a threat to efforts to unseat Trump because he's too far to the left and is not even a member of the Democratic Party. Further, he says, Sanders' record has some serious flaws that would make him an awkward Democratic standard bearer -like his past support of the National Rifle Association, for example.
"Bernie’s still being given a bit of a free pass by the national media," he said. "I do not believe that he would be a strong candidate for our party in the fall. And, except for three months out of every four years, he’s not even of our party . . . He's a man who never has accomplished anything in public office, who has, I believe, demonstrated his inability to forge a governing consensus, let alone hold a governing consensus. And I think he’d be an awful choice as our party’s nominee."
Needless to say, O'Malley's comments drew ire from Bernie bros, many of them going to Twitter to ridicule his failed 2016 presidential campaign and telling him in no uncertain terms what he could do with himself. (Some of them even made fun of his name, saying it sounded like that of a cartoon character.) Since I was in a bad mood at the time I noticed this, I responded to the O'Malley-haters with a few choice words of my own, and let me tell you, I was in an extremely bad mood, so I really unloaded on them!
And I don't blame O'Malley for picking this fight. After all, the 2016 Sanders campaign showed as much disrespect for him as the Hillary Clinton campaign did - maybe even more disrespect - and Sanders' mere presence in the 2016 presidential nomination discombobulated him and destroyed whatever chance he had of challenging Hillary directly. When Hillary attacked Sanders earlier this year, it was the churlish reaction of a bad loser. When O'Malley does the same thing, it's righteous indignation born out of of having had to run for the Presidency with the deck stacked against him not only by the Democratic National Committee but by an independent who shouldn't have run for the party's nomination in the first place.
O'Malley proved as governor of Maryland that you don't have to destroy the system in order to deliver progressive results, but he never got a chance to make his case for working within the system. And recent events have proven many in the Sanders camp to be intolerant, self-righteous, and smug. I actually agree with a lot of Sanders is saying, but he's not going to win. I once said that O'Malley's and Sanders' positions were mostly similar with only a difference in temperament, but it turns out that difference in temperament is far more significant than a difference of opinion. As governor of Maryland, O'Malley probably found it easier to deal with Republicans in Annapolis than with someone of Sanders' ilk.
O'Malley's doing fine, now, thank you, teaching, consulting, and promoting his book - more on online media than on mainstream TV news, which clearly wants nothing to do with him - but the activity could theoretically lead to bigger and better things. If either Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, or Michael Bloomberg is elected President in 2020, any one of whom will likely serve only one term due to age, O'Malley could run for President again in 2024, though it would be a stretch for him to try to regain elective office a decade after last holding it (unless he gets a Cabinet post in a post-Trump Democratic administration). The possibility of a 2024 presidential election with the incumbent retiring, however, does provide an opportunity. Sadly, with the way things are going, that incumbent could be Donald Trump.
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