Martin O'Malley - The End (Or, An Irish Wake)

I'm done.

Six weeks ago, I wrote a letter to former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley a letter urging him to consider running for President again in 2024 if President Biden were to decide not to stand for a second term.  Now, friends. there was one of two things O'Malley could have done, and one was to write me back saying that not only was he considering another presidential campaign in 2024 if Biden doesn't run again, he would even consider challenging Biden for the nomination - which wasn't likely, and I didn't expect it - and the other was that he would write me back and thank me for my support of his political career going back seven years but he truly believed that his time as a presidential prospect had come and gone and he had no desire to return to the political arena in any way, shape or form, which was what I expected, but there was a third possibility that I hadn't stopped even once to consider, and that was . . .

Crickets.

That's right, crickets.  Though it's been six weeks, O'Malley hasn't responded to my letter.  I think I can interpret his silence as a no.  It's a safe bet that he meant what he said back in 2019 when he said his moment as a viable presidential candidate had passed, which was why he instead endorsed Beto O'Rourke for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.  He was wrong about Beto, of course (and I have more to say about the former Democratic wunderkind later on), and I hope that he would realize that he was also wrong about his own future political prospects. Arizona congressman Morris Udall once famously declared presidential ambition was a disease to be cured only by embalming fluid, but there's now a second cure for presidential ambition . . .  utter ridicule, which was what O'Malley got all through 2015 and 2016 and even got as soon as Trump's presidential term began, when O'Malley hinted that he might run in 2020.  

A politician still burning with presidential ambition wouldn't pull the plug on his own Web site.  Nor would a politician still burning with presidential ambition disband his political action committee (PAC), which is what O'Malley did to Win Back Your State, a PAC devoted to helping Democratic state legislative candidates.  And a politician still burning with presidential ambition would have campaigned for Joe Biden in 2020 despite the threat of an out-of-control virus, which would put said politician in good standing with President Biden for a Cabinet or ambassadorial post.        

But then, Martin O'Malley has just accepted what is likely a much better gig - chieftain of the O'Malley clan, which involves organizing the clan gathering in Ireland in June 2023.

I've concluded that an O'Malley Presidency will never happen, especially after all of the bad luck O'Malley has had.  Murphy's Law has hung over his head like a cloud since he left the governorship of Maryland, as evidenced more recently  by his wife Katie's failure to win the Democratic nomination for Maryland Attorney General.  President Biden's move to make the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary - a primary O'Malley would have no chance of winning, given his relative unpopularity among black Democrats - the first Democratic presidential primary in the nation is a fatal blow to any remaining desire to win the White House that O'Malley might have had.

So that's it - one more thing I'm giving up on.  And to be honest, writing O'Malley and sending that letter to his home address was probably in bad form, as I likely violated his privacy.  Sending the letter to his law office would have probably been a better idea.  It would have been something though, if he had resolved himself to make another try for the White House because of my letter.  Maybe it's true that one person can make a difference, but that ne person was never going to be me.

And there's my Irish wake for the political career of Martin Joseph O'Malley.  See you 'round the pubs!