The Atlantic's article on the O'Malley campaign (From Dec 2014)

[FSogol]

Martin O’Malley ought to be a Democrat’s dream candidate. In two terms as the governor of Maryland, he’s ushered in a sweeping liberal agenda that includes gay marriage, gun control, an end to the death penalty, and in-state college tuition for undocumented immigrants. He’s trim and handsome; he plays in an Irish rock band; he even served as the basis for a character on The Wire (sort of—more on that in a minute). He shows great zeal for improving things both large and small: during a recent visit to the Light House, a homelessness-prevention center in Annapolis that provides job training and other assistance, he said that he had, as governor, taken the state’s traditional Day to Serve and made it 17 days long. “I really enjoy progress, and making progress, and my joy comes from understanding that it happens one life at a time,” he told me, reflecting on the center’s work.

and

O’Malley refuses to pout about his negligible public image. “My process doesn’t involve polling; it involves listening,” he told me sunnily, leaning back in his chair. We had moved to one of the Light House’s back rooms, which smelled faintly of disinfectant. I wondered aloud whether it might heighten O’Malley’s profile if he were to pick fights from time to time, particularly with Clinton, whose every sneeze launches a thousand cable-news segments. But O’Malley claimed he did not resent Clinton’s prominence: “She’s an iconic figure, and someone who has so many accomplishments in public service, that it doesn’t surprise me at all.” Asked whether he had something to offer that Clinton did not, O’Malley said, “I do.” I pressed him as to what that might be. Finally, after praising Clinton and Biden, he said, “The thing I believe presents something of value to my country, especially in these times, is my experience as an executive, and as somebody that was able to bring people together in order to get things done.”

In his travels around the country, O’Malley said, he had discovered that people were looking for a new kind of leadership. It was this realization that convinced him that the polls don’t matter. “History’s full of all sorts of instances where candidates at various levels, whether mayor or governor or president, have begun a race at 1 or 2 percent,” he said. He wasn’t wrong: both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were considered long shots before beginning their primary campaigns, and Barack Obama trailed in early primary polling. O’Malley emphasized that he had himself gone from single digits to victory when he ran for mayor of Baltimore in 1999. Underdogs have historically succeeded, O’Malley said, when “they knew what they were about, they knew what they had to offer, and they offered it at a time when the people most needed that way of leadership.”

and the conclusion

Under O’Malley, Maryland was ranked first nationwide in public-school achievement by Education Week for five years in a row and twice designated the top state for innovation and entrepreneurship by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. I couldn’t help but think that, given these achievements, it must be a little galling to be treated as such an afterthought in the presidential race. Wasn’t a successful two-term governor of a populous state due more respect? O’Malley was having none of it. “People in our country can become very famous overnight,” he pointed out. Besides, he went on, laughing: “Why would anyone go into politics for respect? You don’t go into politics for respect. You go into politics to get something done.”

Whole article by Molly Ball here:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/12/the-long-shot/382238/

[elleng]

1. Thanks, FSogol.