Tag: martin o’malley

A *dirty* Democratic primary season may still happen!

Call me an optimist? Sure.  It’s a fair cop.  Still, here comes the war: “Minutes after [Martin] O’Malley’s appearance on “This Week,” former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, a top adviser to the Ready for Hillary PAC, said on the same program, “Martin O’Malley, he’s a very nice guy, and I was thinking he might make a nice member of a President Clinton administration, so he better watch it.””  Jennifer Granholm, for those of you who don’t remember, was the person that liberals used to get wistful about: she’s a naturalized citizen – and thus ineligible to become President.  Well, to be honest about it Granholm would have been ineligible to become President anyway, given that she drove the state of Michigan into the ground so hard that it left an impact crater; but that is perhaps incidental to my point.

Moving along: streiff over at RedState takes O’Malley seriously as both a challenger to Hillary, and as a candidate for President.  I share his opinion on the first, but not the second; the pathway for a Democratic victory in 2016 is through the difficult trick of simultaneously embracing Clintonism and rejecting Obamaism while at the same time being publicly seen to embrace Obamaism and reject Clintonism. It’s a devil of a problem, really. Democratic primary voters will be made up of bitter progressives who want to be told pretty lies about how they’re not the ones who are fringe, really, and African-American voters who want proper deference shown to Barack Obama.  That’s enough of a combined voting bloc to get the nomination.  Alas for the Democrats, swing voters have already had eight years of Barack Obama and progressives; and those voters are showing little sign of being interested in twelve. Continue reading A *dirty* Democratic primary season may still happen!

Iowa Democrats: Save us, Martin O’Malley, you’re our only hoHAHAHA sorry.

It’s a measure of how awful the Democratic bench is – not excluding its front-runner – that this is newsworthy: “Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley stepped up his critique of Wall Street excesses here Friday as he began his first swing through Iowa this year with a populist speech to an enthusiastic crowd of close to 300 people attending a Democratic dinner.”  As most people reading this probably know already, O’Malley is not exactly known for having the word ‘enthusiastic’ associated with him.  He is, in point of fact, rather dull. Continue reading Iowa Democrats: Save us, Martin O’Malley, you’re our only hoHAHAHA sorry.

Martin O’Malley demonstrates why Hillary Clinton is still considered the front-runner.

It’s such a little thing, but important.  Martin O’Malley started off decently enough, here: “Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley says if he were president, it would be important as commander in chief to have his secretary of state use the official server for business.” Not bad; and neither was the talking point of how the economy would be more important, anyway.  Mind you, Martin O’Malley doesn’t actually know how to grow an economy, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

But then O’Malley whiffs it. From the same Politico article: “O’Malley said he didn’t “feel compelled to answer” a follow-up question about Clinton’s actions from Bloomberg Politics’ John Heilemann. “Secretary Clinton is perfectly capable of defending her own service in office,” he said.” In other words: Martin O’Malley is running for Vice President.  Either that, or he has the political instincts of a clubbed baby harp seal. Continue reading Martin O’Malley demonstrates why Hillary Clinton is still considered the front-runner.

Martin O’Malley not running for MD-SEN seat, surprisingly.

You’d think that he’d be all over this, but no: “Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said Tuesday he will not run for Senate in 2016, taking himself out of what could be a messy Democratic primary race to replace retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.” That is… very interesting. Maybe there really is an internal Democratic movement afoot to give Hillary the old heave-ho convince the Distinguished former Secretary of State that she should relax a little, and enjoy her twilight years.  Certainly O’Malley would have much more of a shot in a completely open Presidential field…

Or maybe O’Malley just wants to spend the rest of his life cashing fat lobbying checks. I could see that, too.

Martin O’Malley: NIMBY. Marylanders would just attack those detainee kids, you understand.

At first, I was just sourly amused at this bit of hypocrisy wafting out from Martin O’Malley.  But then I kept reading.

Martin O’Malley says that deporting the children detained at the border would be sending them to “certain death” — but he also urged the White House not to send them to a facility in his own state.

Hours after the Maryland governor and prospective 2016 presidential candidate became the most prominent Democrat to criticize the White House on the issue, Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Muñoz called O’Malley to complain.

But before they hung up, O’Malley told Muñoz not to send any of the children to the facility in Westminster, Md., that the White House was looking at. It’s a conservative part of the state, he warned. The children were at risk of getting harassed, or worse, he said.

Continue reading Martin O’Malley: NIMBY. Marylanders would just attack those detainee kids, you understand.

Maryland inadvertently experiments with cross-state #obamacare plans.

Alternative title: why must you do this to me democrats i dont even my pain fills the stars

Marylanders who use the federal health reform site to search for navigators who can help them enroll in health plans in-person are getting directed to agencies in other states.

…Which is nice of Maryland, given the way that Gov. Martin O’Malley* and the rest of his Democratic krew have utterly [expletive deleted] up the state exchange already.  And note the tense: this is happening right now.  Your guess is as good as mine as to when, or if, it gets fixed.

Continue reading Maryland inadvertently experiments with cross-state #obamacare plans.

Baltimore Sun: Maryland MUST consider scrapping its state #obamacare exchange.

The sound that you just heard was Martin O’Malley’s Presidential ambitions getting shot in the gut:

…the pace of enrollments is still far too low. If the [Maryland state] exchange is able to replicate its best weekday and weekend performance during every one of the 104 days between now and the end of the open enrollment period on March 31, Maryland will still only achieve about three-quarters of its goal of signing up 150,000 people with private coverage. The site may be better, but better isn’t good enough.

Under those circumstances, the question raised by Rep. John Delaney, a Montgomery County Democrat, about whether it would be better for Maryland to scrap its effort to build its own exchange and instead join the federal one has merit. Indeed, Gov. Martin O’Malley acknowledged on Monday that the option — and all others — remain on the table.

That’s a hard possibility for Governor O’Malley to acknowledge. Under his leadership, Maryland was one of the most aggressive states in the effort to build out its own exchange — a strategic decision that appears in retrospect to have involved no small amount of hubris and political ambition. Walking away now from all that effort and tens of millions in expenditures would be particularly embarrassing.

Continue reading Baltimore Sun: Maryland MUST consider scrapping its state #obamacare exchange.

How #obamacare is messing up MANY Dem 2016 candidates’ lives.

I mean, obviously it’s going to mess up Joe Biden’s life: he’s the Vice President of the administration who turned the roll-out of the single most iconic representation of the progressive/liberal concept of big government into a prolonged rake-stepping session.  And just as obviously it’s going to mess up Hillary Clinton’s life, too: she’s the woman who brought the rake in the first place.  Remember: that individual mandate?  All Hillary Clinton’s idea.

But I digress.  Anyway, that’s the executive branch more or less blighted by this law; and even if there were any credible 2016 Democratic candidates among the legislature they’d all be tainted by President Obama’s Happy Shiny Fun-Time Healthcare Debacle by now anyway.  But what of the governors?  Surely one or two of them remains… unspoiled. Continue reading How #obamacare is messing up MANY Dem 2016 candidates’ lives.

Maryland, #Obamacare, SIS BOOM BAH! 100 signups (100-minus), RAH RAH …HUH?

Thank God I am not stuck relying on the federal government in order to get health insurance.

…Maryland has been at the forefront of implementing the Affordable Care Act. It established six policy work groups. It trained more than 5,000 people to help consumers enroll in new health-coverage options. When its online insurance exchange passed a critical test in the summer — one of the first in the country to do so — a top official gave an emotional speech thanking workers. If any state was going to be ready for Oct. 1, when millions of uninsured Americans would be able to start buying coverage under the health law, it would be Maryland.

But when Tuesday arrived, Maryland’s Web site stumbled badly. People couldn’t log on, forcing state officials to delay the opening of the exchange for four hours. Even after it opened, many frustrated users were unable to create accounts, the first step in buying coverage. All told, fewer than 100 people have managed to enroll.

Continue reading Maryland, #Obamacare, SIS BOOM BAH! 100 signups (100-minus), RAH RAH …HUH?

Gov. Martin O’Malley (D, Maryland) and the joys of focus group testing.

He’s gotten himself a shiny new null statement:

 

God, I’d love to know what sequence of market research surveys created that Frankenstein’s Monster of a buzzphrase. Although I’ll just say this right now: if O’Malley thinks that trying the tired old I’m a pragmatist, not a liberal wheeze* is going to make up nationally for being soft on crime and against basic civil rights… heh.

Moe Lane

*I don’t expect liberals to agree with Liberal Fascism, but they should at least read it.