Tuesday, September 20, 2022

O'Malley 2024?

President Biden said something eye-opening on this past Sunday's edition of "60 Minutes" - and it wasn't that the pandemic is over, which everyone knows is a crock.  He said that while he intends to run for re-election in 2024, he hasn't decided yet on whether to run because circumstances may change and force him to reconsider.

In other words, the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination could be there for the taking by any Democrat who wants to go for it.

Which brings me back - as always - to the subject of Martin O'Malley.

One would likely conclude that Martin O'Malley has retired from politics for good.  He himself said in 2019 that he thought his moment as a presidential contender had come and gone, his endorsement of Beto O'Rourke for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination was spectacularly ill-advised (as O'Rourke withdrew as a candidate before the year 2020 even started), he did nothing to promote the eventual Biden-Harris ticket (an absence that COVID didn't excuse), his inaction for the Democrats meant that Biden passed him over for Cabinet and ambassadorial posts, and his work for his wife Katie's bid for the Democratic nomination for Maryland Attorney General yielded more failure.  O'Malley hasn't tweeted anything on his Twitter account since Katie - whom one aide to a member of the Maryland state legislature compared to Hitler for her civil rights record - lost her primary.

But even O'Malley would tell you that you have to be at your lowest ebb before you can get to a better place.  Or as that great theologian Steve Miller once said, you know you've got to go through hell before you get to heaven.

If Biden decides not to run, O'Malley is in a perfect position for a comeback.  He still has his impeccable record  as mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland.  His time in public office is so far back in the past that controversies over his handling of crime in Baltimore will seem trivial compared to everything this country has been through in the past seven years.  Derided as a centrist, many of his policies, from support of public education to promoting mass transit and combating climate change, would certainly appeal to progressives.  And at a time when Republican governors are exploiting the migrant crisis for political gain and apparently getting away with it, we could use O'Malley's voice on immigration, his signature issue in the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign and an issue he remains passionate about.  (His current silence on Twitter during the busing of migrants to northern cities is dismaying.)

Are there liabilities against O'Malley?  Sure.  Many black people still think he's racist for having so many black Baltimoreans arrested for minor offenses when he was mayor of Baltimore.  Republican rumors of his alleged infidelity to Katie and her alleged attempts to bump off his alleged mistress are bound to get new life if O'Malley is the Democratic nominee and his opponent is Donald Trump.  (Trump did in fact repeat those rumors about O'Malley in 2015, but no one cared about the rumors because no one cared about O'Malley.)  O'Malley is also rusty as a campaigner.  If he were still sharp, Katie would be the Democratic nominee for Maryland Attorney General now (her husband's lieutenant governor, current U.S. Representative Anthony Brown, is).  But in looking at the other prospective stand-ins for Biden in 2024, I don't see anyone who could defeat Trump, Ron DeSantis or any other MAGA men.  Bernie Sanders is too old, Pete Buttigieg is too young, Kamala Harris is too unpopular, Jay Inslee is too anonymous, and Gavin Newsom is too . . . California. 

Why Martin O'Malley?  Why not?
I am currently planning a gambit to execute in November, after the 2022 midterms, in an effort to promote an O'Malley presidential candidacy should Biden stand down after one term.  I'm waiting to see how the midterms turn out (Herschel Walker is still competitive for the U.S. Senate in Georgia?) before I go ahead with it. What is it?  Sorry, I'm not going to tell you until after I've done it.  Only one other person, my friend Clarisel, knows what I'm going to do, and she ain't talkin'.

And to those who laugh at me for being a once and possibly future O'Malley supporter, just as they all laughed at O'Malley himself . . . let's see who has the last laugh.  To those sympathetic to my intentions . . . remember, keep your Pop-Tarts on standby. 😉

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