Oh joy: Ultra-liberal Martin O'Malley challenging Hillary for Dems' 2016 nomination

As someone who believes Hillary Clinton is the most woefully ill-suited person ever to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, I certainly welcome any challenge to her candidacy. In fact, I doubt many of you agree with me but to this day I think we've been less bad off under Barack Obama than we would have been under Hillary - and that's setting the bar pretty low. So on the one hand, I'm glad to see former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announcing his intention to run - assuming he plans on running to win and not just as a liberal foil who helps to make Hillary look moderate by comparison. Anyone who can do harm to Hillary Clinton's candidacy is someone I am glad to see come along.

And apparently it's on:

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is preparing to run for president, with an announcement slated for May 30, he told supporters on a private conference call Thursday evening, according to two sources on the call. O’Malley steered clear of declaring his widely expected presidential run, with aides referring only to a cryptic, potential “federal campaign,” but the intention was clear to all. The call featured about 200 donors, including 100 from Maryland and 100 from other states, one person on the call told msnbc. Donors were told that current and former governors and mayors were on the call as well. In addition to O’Malley, longtime aides Colm O’Comartun and Adam Goers briefed supporters, along with newer hire Bill Hyers, who managed Bill de Blasio’s New York City mayoral run, the source added. O’Malley held other calls with staff, former staff, and friends as well, according to the second source.

I do think the O'Malley candidacy was made more likely by the Clinton Foundation and e-mail scandals, although something like those stories was inevitable. Every time Hillary is in the spotlight she reminds people of why they don't like her: She's dishonest, insincere, shrill, self-serving and really not all that smart - contrary to the narrative that's been sold about her since she emerged on the scene nearly 25 years ago. It was only a matter of time before other Democrats looked at her performance as a candidate and realized they were making a huge mistake by betting the farm on her.

But who is Martin O'Malley, and why does he think he's a plausible choice for the presidency? He served as Maryland's governor from 2007 through Januar of this year, following two terms as mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007. He is certainly not lacking in governmental experience, but then, neither is Hillary. As we often say, it's what you did when you were there that matters, not merely that you were there. As governor, he pushed thorugh a massive tax increase in response to a budget deficit. And that shouldn't surprise anyone if you consider a recent speech O'Malley gave about economics - a very direct and specific (and factually wrong) attack on Ronald Reagan and his entire economic philosophy:

As President Reagan famously proclaimed – government is the problem. And for the good of the people, we were told, our federal government needed to be weakened, reined in, and removed from our lives wherever and whenever possible. Over the next thirty years this Trickle-Down Theory dominated our economic debates and guided our political choices. Its three main tactics have been:

1. Tax cuts and tax policies that not only underinvest in our nation, but grossly and disproportionately benefit corporations and the ultra-wealthy;
2. The systematic de-regulation of even the riskiest investment behavior on Wall Street;
3. And the adoption of state and national policies designed to keep wages low, in the name of making us more competitive.

This theory, of course, fell apart with the crash of 2008. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, lost their homes, and lost retirement benefits. And now Americans are demanding a better balance.

What a load of crap this is. If you want to compare the economic growth record we had under Reagan to the one we've endured under Obama, feast your eyes. Reagan cleans Obama's clock. As for "underinvesting," we're now spending $3.7 trillion every year, none of which is creating a job or inreasing a wage because government spending doesn't do that. All the prosperity growth of the past generation has been driven by productive actors in the private sector, which O'Malley has not the slightest understanding of. And claiming that the 2008 crash was caused by Reaganism? That's rich. Many factors contributed to the 2008 crash, but the biggest was the widespread decision by mortgage lenders to lend to people who had no business taking on a mortgage. That's how we ended up with so many toxic assets that compromised the stability of the financial system. And contrary to O'Malley's claim that this was caused by inadequate regulation of Wall Street, the federal government encouraged lenders to lend to those with little money and poor credit, often holding them harmless by buying up the mortgages through their quasi-public corporations established precisely for that purpose. So let's not get so excited about Hillary having a challenger that we lose sight of the fact Martin O'Malley would be a horrible president in every tradition of Barack Obama. I'm all for popping popcorn and watching these Democrats bludgeon each other, but none of them would make good presidents.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

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