I'm hesitant to ask this here, but...

[TreasonousBastard]

I think O'Malley is the best candidate out of the whole crowd running and I'm curious if anyone has a clue why he's so far behind. Is it because Hillary is, well, Hillary and has the organization built up over years and Bernie has the hard left sewn up?

I'm also curious about what negatives will show up if he moves up. Nobody's spending time attacking him yet but when the dark horse becomes a white horse he becomes a target and I'd like to have some answers for the inevitable criticisms.

If I had the time to go through hundreds of posts I'm sure these have been mentioned many times, but I would appreciate a condensed version, if possible.

And, yes-- the obligatory of course Bernie or Hillary would get my vote over anyone in the clown car. I just don't like Bush or Kasick much, but the rest strike me with raw terror.

[Recursion]

1. It's a fair question

And you're not the only one to ask that.

I think something like this:

1. Clinton, obviously, has a huge amount of institutional and base support, and that would be a challenge to overcome in any circumstances

2. Sanders announced before O'Malley, and caught the attention of a lot of the people whose main goal is to nominate someone other than Clinton

3. Sanders also has had a significant following for a part of the party that has felt ignored for a long time, which means that a lot of people who might otherwise have stayed out of the early part of the primary season have been (ahem) very passionate about his candidacy. So he widened the field, which makes O'Malley's "natural" support base look smaller than it might have otherwise

4. And, well, we've seen what's happened since then, and it's hard for the one sane person to get much attention while everybody around him is throwing pies at people

That said, I don't think low national poll numbers in November are a huge worry, frankly. A strong showing in Iowa or New Hampshire would change the media dynamic a lot.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. I'm not terribly worried either...

just a little worried. The Hillary steamroller kind of guaranteed unlocking the passions of the Bernie crowd, just like we've seen pretty much the same people invest themselves in far-left candidates before. Not that I don't like Bernie, he's saying a lot of things that have to be said, I just have my doubts about him working with a Republican congress. If he can even win.

Maybe, just maybe, Trump blowing his cool in Iowa will bring a lot of people to their senses when they actually have to make a choice.

[zalinda]

3. Bernie has worked with Republicans

for years. Even the Republicans in Burlington when he was mayor, say he was fair to them, and they support him.

For what it's worth, O'Malley can use this time to hone his Presidential run in 4 years. If Bernie wins, I'm not sure he will stay for the 8 years. He would most likely want to pass the baton on to someone who shares his values, and that would be O'Malley.

Apparently, there are some problems with his work with the police and POC when he was mayor. That popped up on the radar when he first announced.

Z