While there does still remain a majority, albeit a
shrinking one, on the left of those who at least appear to be enthusiastic when
it comes to Hitlery Clinton, but the size of that majority would now seem to be
shrinking on what is, at least, a weekly basis.
The more her email problems remain the topic of discussion, as well as
the rather sizable donations made to her family’s foundation that have come
from some very questionable, to say the least, sources, the less Hitlery ‘appears’
to be ready for primetime. Enter Marty
O’Malley, the former governor of the People’s Republic of Maryland. Marty who it would seem to standing at the
ready to portray himself as a viable alternative should Hitlery falter.
And so it would appear that Marty just might be having
a bit of a moment for himself. But make
no mistake, it’s not because of anything that he, himself, might be doing. What his sudden spike in popularity has much
more to do with is a growing level of anxiety regarding Hitlery’s readiness for
a presidential campaign that has some Democrats looking around for potential alternatives.
And the only person standing there right
now is Marty, who recently passed up a run for his state’s open Senate seat,
making it even clearer that he’s serious about a presidential run. And he did get some national coverage from as
speech Wednesday the Brookings Institution and he has recently turned up on
MSNBC.
But let’s not be too quick to affix the
rising-insurgent moniker to Marty just yet. After all, it remains difficult to imagine
Marty playing the part of progressive challenger, a role played in prior Democrat
presidential primaries by such notable characters from the left as Gene
McCarthy, George McGovern, Gary Hart, Bill Bradley, and, especially, Howard ‘The
Screamer’ Dean. While O’Malley carried
out a staunchly liberal agenda in Maryland—legalizing same-sex marriage, ending
the death penalty, and much more—and while he has proven feisty at partisan
sparring with Republicans, it is hard to envision him as being able to stir
liberal hearts and minds the way previous insurgents have been able to do.
And it’s not just because he’s a notoriously leaden
public speaker; it’s that, as progressive as his governing record is, on more
than a few occasions he’s been oddly reluctant to champion liberal values in
the terms many on the left crave. It was
during the Obamacare debate that he chided Democrats who “immediately run to
the values of caring and fairness” instead of focusing on the economic case for
health care reform. His idea of
visionary language is calling for America to be an “opportunity-expanding
entity.” He’s more likely to quote
Thomas Friedman than Thomas Frank. And he
is, even by his own account, not a tribune but a technocrat, not an orator but
a doer.
And that’s where Marty’s other and, potentially,
more significant challenges comes in. His supposed record of accomplishment as
a governing executive between mayor of Baltimore, and governor of Maryland, has
him taking already one of the more prosperous and well-educated states in the
nation, a better place to live. But his ‘legacy’ is now at risk of being at
least partially dismantled. His chosen successor and lieutenant governor,
Anthony Brown, succumbed in what was surely the biggest Republican upset last of
November’s election. In a state that Barry won by 26 percentage points in both
2012 and 2008, Brown managed to lose by four points to Larry Hogan, a
conservative businessman who’d never even held elected office.
While the responsibility for this ‘debacle’ ultimately
lies with Brown, Marty can also be said to bear some of responsibility as well
for the fact that the governorship of Maryland now lies in the hands of those
who are seen by many, in this very blue state, as the opposition. It was Marty who chose the rather underwhelming
Brown as his successor, and then proceeded to make himself quite scarce during
the race, choosing to spend more time in Iowa and New Hampshire than Arbutus
and Aspen Hill. Gov. Hogan is now hard
at work trying to clean up the mess that Marty left behind. And that would be the
mess that so many on left describe as being Marty’s wonderfully progressive
legacy.
But some of the things that you will rarely, if
ever, hear Marty or his allies make mention of, is how he set about the increasing
of sales taxes, income taxes on high-income earners and how he even went so far
as to create entirely new taxes on services. He also raised the gas tax for the first time
in more than two decades and increased the corporate tax rate. Joe Cluster, executive director of the
Maryland Republican Party, said, "O'Malley's legacy is the strongest Republican
Party since the 1920s." Mr. Cluster
went on to say, "He was a strong campaigner, he won two elections, but in
the end, his policies created an environment that will bring this state closer
to being a two-party state."
And even some Democrats agree that the Republican
wave that took the governor's mansion and a record number of House of Delegate
seats was sparked, at least in part, by Marty's insatiable appetite for higher
taxes. It was House Economic Matters Chairman Dereck Davis, a Prince George's
County Democrat, who said, "We were, in retrospect, a bit too aggressive in
that department." Davis said, "The
party led by the governor, point blank, was too aggressive in trying to
maintain the status quo." He added,
"You have to make tough choices, even if they're just temporary, you have
to make those [budget] cuts. You have to slow things down. We were unwilling to
say no to anybody, about anything."
But Marty and his defenders will argue that those
tax increases were necessary to keep investing in schools and to stave off
painful cuts during the nationwide recession. We’re told that he inherited a $1.7 billion
structural deficit when he took over from Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich in
2007, a deficit, which this year, stands at an estimated $750 million, or a
reduction of nearly a billion dollars.
But, I can’t help but wonder, wouldn’t you think that after eight years
of being governor that Marty could have done a much better job? Perhaps, had he been a just a bit more
interested in cutting spending he might have been able to, like Scott Walker in
Wisconsin as a for instance, he could have ended up with a surplus.
In then end though, we shouldn’t be too quick to assume
that Hitlery’s current troubles will, in the end, prove to be fatal to her political
ambitions which obviously include her desire to enter the 2016 presidential
contest. Because to make that assumption
would require us to also assume that Hitlery’s supporters to put the country
above their politics. The truth is that
it’s going to take a whole lot more than some emails and questionable donations
to her, and ‘Slick Willie’s’, foundation/charity to cause enough Democrats to
desert her. I mean short of being
convicted of murder, and even that might not be enough for many, there are
those who will remain steadfastly by her side no matter what.
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