Community Corner

Could O'Malley Presidential Bid Hinge On Hillary Clinton's Plans?

The two-term Maryland governor tells the National Journal he's in a "year of discernment" when it comes to running in 2016.

Could Gov. Martin O'Malley's 2016 presidential hopes all hinge on what Hillary Clinton decides to do?

That's the speculation in a political profile of the two-term Democratic Maryland governor in the National Journal.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo "reportedly has said privately that he won’t run if Clinton does, and it’s hard to imagine that O’Malley would, either, given his closeness to her and the strength she now shows in polls and among Washington insiders," according to the National Journal profile. "Still, O’Malley has already visited the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in coming months he plans to help out gubernatorial candidates in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania."

Clinton outpaces the rest of the presumed Democratic presidential hopeful field in at least two recent polls done by Qunnipiac University and New England College.

Clinton leads a field including Vice President Joseph Biden and Cuomo with 13 and 4 percent of the vote respectively, according to the May Quinnipiac poll.

O'Malley joins Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner at the back of the pack. Each polled with 1 percent or less of the support in the national poll.

The poll released Tuesday by the New Hampshire-based college found that Clinton led the field with 65 percent of those surveyed saying they would vote for her in 2016.

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O'Malley finished last among the field of six with zero percent saying they would vote for the two-term Democratic Maryland governor, according to the poll released in May.

An earlier poll done by The Washington Post found that Clinton was more popular in Maryland than O'Malley and a Goucher College poll found that most residents of the state felt Maryland was on the wrong track. The public was nearly evenly split on O'Malley's job performance in the Goucher poll.

The National Journal profile goes on to list other possible problems with an O'Malley presidential bid.

"Presidential candidates often have dramatic narratives that make their candidacies seem larger than themselves," according to the profile that mentions the campaigns of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. "O’Malley’s story is not like any of those."

O'Malley may also have to overcome public perception about who he is, according to the profile, which states:

"People who have heard of O’Malley think they know who he is: a boring, soft-spoken, data-driven, unabashedly liberal, lifelong political junkie who has moved methodically up the career ladder to the Maryland governor’s office and now is in the midst of what he tells National Journal is his 'year of discernment' regarding a 2016 presidential bid." 

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