Media, Pop Culture and Politics

Martin O'Malley: Media, Pop Culture & Politics

The American Spectator's George Neumayr wrote an opinion piece about why he thinks Martin O'Malley will not be America's next president. In the article, Neumayr criticizes O'Malley's political record, his character, and his strength as a leader. All in all, it was not a flattering piece for O'Malley.

There has been a lot of question about who will be able to seriously challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, and it's clear that Neumayr does not think that O'Malley is up for the challenge. 

In a previous post, I discussed that O'Malley's record as Governor of Maryland will be the strength that he wants to play off of. He accomplished a lot while Governor and for most campaigns that would be a strong card to play. However, Neumayr points out a flaw in this strength, Marylanders don't see O'Malley as a good, solid presidential candidate. This is most definitely not the image that O'Malley wants for his campaign. Marylanders criticize him heavily for taxes and that has out shined all the positive things he has done for the state. It doesn't reflect positively on a candidate when their home state isn't giving them strong support. 

Neumayr also plays up O'Malley's weaknesses and even points out others. At one point in the article he refers to O'Malley as a potential substitute for Elizabeth Warren. That's not the image that O'Malley wants. O'Malley needs to be able to separate himself from all the big name politicians so that way he can offer something fresh and new. Being referred to as a substitute for another candidate really devalues his campaign.   

Neumayr brings up O'Malley's religion and how they don't match up with his political values. 

After reading this section it is very clear that Neumayr is rather conservative. His word choice of, "violations of religious freedom" make that clear. Catholicism is a religion that is practiced by about 25% of Americans, and marriage equality and pro-choice values don't tend to be associated with the religion. We have also only had one Catholic president, and that was JFK. Even though Neumayr hits O'Malley's religious values pretty hard, I don't think that this is going to cause a huge image problem for O'Malley. Especially in the primaries. It might be a bigger deal if O'Malley goes on to win the Democratic nomination, but I don't think it's very harmful for his candidate image. 

I picked this article because it's written by someone who is obviously conservative, and those are going to be some of O'Malley's hardest critics. I think that his name and lack of name recognition will be his hardest thing to over come, especially in the primaries. He can't go into the primary being thought of as just a substitute for Elizabeth Warren, no one would take his campaign seriously. I do think that this article could definitely change how people look at O'Malley, but I don't think this article is going to reach a lot of people. Neumayr brings up plenty of solid points about O'Malley and after reading the article it is clear that Martin O'Malley has a lot of work to do on his candidate image.