Two-term Maryland governor Martin O’Malley announced his presidential campaign Saturday with a swing at Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush.
“Recently, the CEO of Goldman Sachs let his employees know that he’d be just fine with either Bush or Clinton,” he said in his campaign announcement on Federal Hill, overlooking Baltimore. “Well, I’ve got news for the bullies of Wall Street—the presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families.”
O’Malley is a longshot candidate for the Democratic nomination, polling at 1% among Democrats compared with Hillary Clinton’s 57%, according to a May 28 Quinnipiac survey, despite his frequent trips to Iowa and New Hampshire. His allies have launched a super PAC called Generation Forward that will support his campaign in early nominating states.
Okay confession time.
I sat here this morning, coffee in hand, and tried to listen to O'Malley's announcement speech.
And I failed.
I swear he was only about three sentences in and I hit the mute button. (I think it was right around the time he said "I want to talk to you about the American dream.")
I am a political junkie, and I usually have an interest in just about anybody running in 2016, but this guy does not even register on my radar.
Now I admit that perhaps I'm being unfair. However when Bernie Sanders launched his campaign he was courageously talking about issues, like taxing the rich at 90% and shutting down for profit prisons, that nobody else was talking about, and let's face it he doesn't pander.
To my ears O'Malley is all pander.
O'Malley offers nothing that makes me think he brings anything new and exciting to the debate. So why bother?
And let's face it the fact that there are some groups in Baltimore directly blaming his policies for the recent violence there is not exactly helping either.
So I will attempt to keep an open mind here, but if O'Malley does not do something dramatic to change the narrative this may be the last time you see his name mentioned on IM.
I realize I'm a fossil when it comes to grammar, but the lack of hyphens in noun-describing words drives me crazy.
ReplyDeleteAn example of the confusion this causes -- When you write,
"...and shutting down for profit prisons." This means the shutting down would be profitable. Not what you mean, I am sure. If you did, it should read, "...shutting down, for profit, prisons."
It should read "for-profit prisons".
And, as for missing commas, I can recommend this book:
In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8600.Eats_Shoots_Leaves
Anybody else bothered by this? Or should I just read an offending sentence three times and sort out its (NOT IT'S)
meaning?
Love your comment. As an old, one-time college prep, English teacher, so much that finds its way to all blog pages hurts me to read. But I try not to be pedantic about it. I realize lots of people just were never taught any better.
DeleteThanks for letting me and others know that there are still some out there who do know better.
No, you're not alone. I struggle with the proliferation of sloppy grammar all the time on the net.
DeleteWhat drives me crazy is the new angle on periods at the end of sentences. Apparently, now they are teaching to use only one space after. Unfortunately, it makes it makes reading much more difficult. That extra space allows for a pause that disappears when it's not there. So there's that.
Language is pretty malleable, but there are common sense things that are getting dropped out, like the two things we mentioned. However, for me, READABILITY is the most important thing, and the missing hyphens, commas and spaces don't help the situation, at all. It makes for easy misunderstandings in writing.
For me it's the rampant apostrophe abuse, but yes, a few well-placed commas and hyphens would not be amiss.
Delete++++
DeleteThanks for the thumbs up on this!
DeleteBarbara - I consider myself old-school when it comes to grammar and punctuation as well. Attending Catholic elementary school as a kid, you learned to spell and write correctly, or a session with the strap was your lesson! I cringe nowadays when I see the spelling and writing prowess of the "computer generation". Today's kids may be tech-savvy, but they can't spell or compose a proper sentence worth a damn! There is nothing more that I detest than seeing texting lexicon incorporated into print journalism, i.e. periodicals, newspapers. Give them a pen and paper, tell them to compose a paragraph, and they're lost! As the old Zager and Evans song "In The Year 2525" lyrics spoke of, circa 1968, "your hands idle by your side, some machine's doing it for you".
DeleteI will try to listen to him, to see what he stands up for now that you've brought him up, but I'm sight-unseen Glad that someone or other is running against Hillary. I am aghast at the notion that she could become President by default three years before we even have a chance to vote for her. I'll be glad to have some contenders in the Democratic campaign.
ReplyDeleteOverall: Smartly written speech powerfully delivered by one of the best orators in American politics. Far from running from his Baltimore record, he embraced it, along with what he did as Maryland's governor. Contrasted himself with Hillary Clinton as more left, more populist, and more of a leader. Saturday morning might not be the best time to make an introduction to America, but O'Malley demonstrated why Bill Clinton tagged him long ago as one of the Democratic Party's biggest stars. If the nomination fight didn't have an overwhelming frontrunner, O'Malley's performance would have been a game changer; instead, it is ringing calling card.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-30/martin-o-malley-delivers-powerful-campaign-kickoff-speech
The Martin O’Malley prospectus
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2015/05/8568808/martin-omalley-prospectus-appearance-hillary
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-30/the-definitive-h-h-martin-o-malley-scouting-report
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/05/30/3663971/omalley-announcement/
Gryphen, I wouldn't write him off so soon. He was a very popular Democratic governor in MD, and he may be our next Vice President.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's WAY too early to take such a definitive position, Gryphen, unless you've done your homework on him, it seems a bit unreasonable to shut him down like that.
DeleteI'm just beginning to do my homework on him and I'm learning alot that I had never known. He is pretty progressive, that's for sure.
He has an excellent record on the environment *and* he's pro-choice; it's definitely worth paying attention to him.
DeleteI think this is something to care about. I am glad the democratic party is not just handing over the presidential office position to Sec. Clinton. I still do not think in a country of over 600 + million we need to let particular families run our country and particularly ones who are money lovers like the current ones.
ReplyDeleteI agree. But what I think is most important is that every one of these candidates needs to WORK for our votes and so far I haven't seen much of that from Hillary. She seems to be avoiding the press since her announcement. It's the most under the radar campaign I've ever seen. No interviews, a view speeches and a couple of stated positions. Not sure what she's waiting for, but time will tell.
DeleteI think it's important that Bernie and Martin have jumped in since they are both very progressive in their views, and unapologetically so. Which lines up with the direction the country is going, as noted by your recent post, Gryphen. Hillary is not progressive. She may talk that talk, but she doesn't walk the walk. She's very hawkish and corporate.
Bottom line. We must continue a Democratic presence in the White House. If that's Hillary, I'll vote for her, but I will be taking a good, long hard look at her challengers and how she responds to them and their political philosophies.
Whoa -- 600 million -- when did that happen?
DeleteI thought it was just above 300 million...
318.9 million (2014)
DeleteUnited States of America, Population
As of May 28, 2015, the United States has a total resident population of 320,970,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
O'Malley's running for VP. And, by most accounts, he'd be a decent choice, not that Hillary will go that way. I'm thinking she's going to try hard to have a Latino running mate and Joaquin Castro seems to be the favorite so far, unfortunately it doesn't look like he's a great candidate beyond optics. Can't wait to see how it all plays out!
ReplyDeleteLol, I'm reading this at my mom's and just a few minutes ago I said the same thing to her!
Delete**I meant JULIAN Castro, not Joaquin! Joaquin is the Congressman, Julian is the HUD Secretary, and they're twins so I switched them. ;-P
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of the man but I will listen, briefly at least, to determine if he's worth anything as a contender.
ReplyDeleteAs for pandering, there are actually three P's: Pander, Prostitution and Politics, and they are mutually inclusive. Every politician since time began has pandered to someone, finding which buttons to push to get elected. Many if not most have prostituted their soul to the highest bidder for cold, hard cash.
Tax the rich at 90%? It will never happen. The President cannot do that alone so it's an empty promise.
Now he could promise to voters that he will provide to everyone toothpaste that will get their teeth as white as they can be -- and he could deliver on that promise, but that too is misleading if one reads the ad copy carefully and comprehends what it really says. Your teeth are what they are.
Color me more than a bit cynical about politicians.
You ask if anyone cares? Well, apparently it woke up Sarah!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin
I have a good friend who worked for him for several years when he was Governor. And she still is part of his circle. She has told me that he is very smart, very committed to social justice issues, hardworking, inclusive and fun to be around. Trust me, not all politicians are seen that way.
ReplyDeleteHe was a strong Hillary supporter in 2008 and is realistic about how far he can go this time. But my friend says he has issues that he cares deeply about and wants to use this national stage to discuss them.
I'd urge people to hear him out. And I don't think he's on any list for VP. In terms of crass political calculations he would bring nothing to the table on that score.
A Fan From Chicago
Look at this this way. When $arah throws her hat in, she can actually call him O'Malley in debates as opposed to O'Biden. Win win, darling, please run, Smooches from the lower 48!
ReplyDeleteWhereas Hillary talks a good game about minimum wage, he's actually raised it in his state. I for one am going to be paying attention to him.
ReplyDeleteI will be as well. I've had a friend yammering in my ear about him for months, and I said once he threw his hat in the ring I would give him a fair consideration, and I'm going to. So far he seems much more progressive than Hillary and more humble. I just remember when it was an outrageous idea that Barack H. Obama could win the presidency, but he did....twice. A lot of the same stuff is being said about O'Malley that was said about Obama.
DeleteNow, for me, there is no one like Obama, I adore him and hold him in the highest of esteem for who he is and what he's done, but unfortunately, his time is over soon as our president, so I have to look to who will best carry forward his ideas, his accomplishments and build on them, expand them. Is that Hillary? I'm not so sure. Is that Martin, again, I have homework to do. Is it Bernie, yes, to some degree and even more so in other ways.
I struggle with trusting Hillary, she seems to exaggerate things with ease. I totally acknowledgement her accomplishments, but her integrity is suspect.
I have met Governor O'Malley several times, and know many of his staff from a previous job (as a matter of fact one of my co-workers at that job was O'Malley's mother). He's definitely not pandering, look at his record inMaryland and you will see a strong commitment to the stuff we Democrats find important. I urge that you give him a second look.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I was leaning toward an O'Malley/Brian Schweizer ticket or vice versa as one was a moderate, the other a progressive and could balance each other out. Since then Brian has pretty much removed himself from consideration and O'Malley has proven to be uninspring. I hope O'Malley can be the Veep.
ReplyDeleteWell, the left has 3 clowns in our car now, and that's enough.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about O'Malley but am glad that he is throwing his hat into the ring. We have to bring up the real issues at hand and he along with Bernie are actually talking about them. I have to wonder about Hillary, did she think it's all the in the bag for her and she doesn't need to go out there? I was disappointed in her announcement, she covered nothing new and I thought, really, that's it? I was pretty sure she did have it in the bag but now I am not so sure, Bernie is hitting it out of the park with many and I actually think it is possible. Look what a one term senator did from Illinois, the people came out in droves. I'm pretty sure that Hillary has inherited his data base but Bernie is likable and appeals to the average wage earner and students. There are many polls out there saying that a huge amount of people agree with his platform despite him being a Socialist Democrat. Now I'm totally with him on that labeling in the first place, those countries that are ran under that terminology are doing so much better from cradle to grave than we are. Americans are suffering under capitalism, we are becoming modern serfs to the wealthy. This does need to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I've noticed. Hillary is popular when she is mostly out of the spotlight. Once she's in the spotlight, she becomes less popular. I've noticed that she is unnaturally avoiding the news cycles as far as getting her message out. If she's running for president then she needs to RUN. To have town halls, to give speeches, interviews. To show up on the Sunday shows, have one on one interviews with magazines, rally's at colleges. She hasn't done much at all. Yes, it is early, but early is when you put your footprint down and build on it. What is she running on? What is she staking her candidacy on? Is she waiting to see the way the wind blows? I want something much more solid from her.
ReplyDeleteO'Malley presents another voice. One that has gravitas, experience and commitment behind it. How can that be a bad thing?
Americans think Hillary Clinton is capable of being president, but they’re still not sure whether to trust her.
Deletehttp://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/17/hillary-clinton-faces-trust-deficit-with-voters-wsjnbc-poll/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/05/04/do-americans-trust-hillary-clinton-not-when-shes-running-for-office/
Like the previous poster stated, it appears that Hillary is in hiding and has gotten some advice from the McCain/Palin team. She is slow and guarded in what she says to the press.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, I think there are a lot of Democratic voters that don't trust Clinton or her corporate agenda. She used to be on the Board of Directors at WalMart!
I too want the Democratic agenda to be continued versus the Republican chaos. I will definitely be listening to O'Malley and Sanders in the months to come. This should not be a coronation for either Clinton (or Bush).
H. Boyd Brown, a South Carolina Democrat, said that he and other O’Malley backers are hoping for a repeat of the 2008 primary contest, in which front-runner Clinton succumbed to Barack Obama, then a largely unknown junior senator from Illinois.
ReplyDelete“Her support then, as it is now, was a mile wide and an inch deep,” Brown said in an interview. If O’Malley can manage a strong showing in Iowa — where he plans to camp out in the coming months — “the dynamics completely change, and it’s game on.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/omalley-to-launch-improbable-bid-for-democratic-presidential-nomination/2015/05/29/2f73bc34-dd53-11e4-acfe-cd057abefa9a_story.html
Here’s what Martin O’Malley said when he launched his campaign
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/05/30/heres-what-martin-omalley-said-when-he-launched-his-campaign/
Well if Sarah is getting her panties in a twist then for SURE I'll be checking him out.
ReplyDeleteHer FB post is nasty, misguided, mean and fear mongering, as usual. But O'Malley's announcement seems to have stirred her ghostwriter from under that putrid rock she hangs out under and she felt the need to fire off a shot in O'Malley's direction, with a paranoid attack on Obama, to boot.
Anyone Sarah is against, is probably someone worthwhile, genuine and sincere. If she supports someone they are dishonest, slimy, often criminal, usually sexually deviant in some way, faux Christian and over the top Nationalistic under the banner of patriotism.
https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10153373444598588
I don't mind more people stepping in the ring and am willing to hear anyone out when it comes to the Office of the President. I wouldn't write anyone off this early. Remember Sarah Palin? She gave it her best shot but had no idea how to answer Joshua so she just said "the VP is like the President's buddy, who goes in there, listens to the public ....... oh hell, When is someone going to tell me exactly what it is the VP does from day to day?" and other regurgitated brain farts.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm trying to convey is it's like Darwinism, the strong survive, the strung outs do drugs, wear wigs, fake boobs, have rants on fb, PACS, reality shows, and grandbabies out of wedlock.
I sure don't.
ReplyDelete