The Washington Post’s coverage of George Stephanopoulos’ interview of Martin O’Malley on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, March 29th presented the former Maryland Governor as a potential presidential candidate. However, the clip embedded in this article lends a hint at O’Malley’s strategy of entering the surfacing phase of a primary. He is presenting himself as a “potential” candidate but is careful to avoid any criticism of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic choice. In Chapter nine of Denton and Kuypers’ section on Presidential Campaigns, they state: “During the surfacing stage, candidates must achieve visibility, establish credibility or fitness, and begin to build a viable organization” (p204). When George pointed out the “hint” of strategy to take on Hillary Clinton, as evidenced by the five visits to Iowa, New Hampshire and his “triangulation” speech in South Carolina; Stephanopoulos asked O’Malley two questions for anyone even thinking of running for the Presidency:“Why are you running and why are you the best person for the job?” Governor O’Malley skirted the question and was careful to not announce his intentions to run. He did, however, set the stage for his inevitable intentions as either president or Vice President to Clinton. On page 205 in chapter nine, it says, “Perhaps the most difficult element of building candidate image in the preliminary phase is the need to demonstrate that the candidate is presidential material. It is essential that the candidate be perceived as diplomatic and credible.” O’Malley never criticized Clinton, and successfully diverted the answer to tout his views and accomplishments. He did, however, suggest that the “Presidency is a sacred position that is earned, not merely passed from family to family;” of course, his implied reference was about America’s past choices to keep the Bush and Clinton families in office. Martin O’Malley is attempting to get his views on the issues out as a liberal democrat who can relate to common people; part of his image in this stage has to be one that supports the “average” American. This clip also showed his jamming with his band, and stating his views in a speech on same sex marriage, gun control, and immigration. O’Malley has honed his political rhetoric and is getting his repetitive message out as quickly as possible with his “we need new leadership and new perspectives” to take on the powerful, wealthy special interests to get ahead. George Stephanopoulos stated that he was surprised by O’Malley’s direct statements and asked him when he will announce his candidacy; of course, he dodged that question so that the American people can partake in the unfolding drama in anticipation of the announcement of his candidacy.
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This is a prime example of the point of the article that we read for class, “Public Speaking in Political Campaigns” by Judith S. Trent and Robert V. Friedenberg that, “Occasionally, if a module is done especially well. It can also be turned into an effective commercial or used for other purposes. Because the module can stand alone and its length can be varied by the addition or deletion of support material such as statistics and examples, it is easy to adapt to a commercial. Often media advisors wish to show their candidate in “the real world,” talking to “real people.” Former Gov. O’Malley seems to be setting his agenda to have a ready-made sound bite for a presidential campaign speech or a commercial. He wants to portray himself as being an alternative to Hillary Clinton by making this statement, “Asked whether Clinton is not willing to stand up to special interests, O’Malley said: “I don’t know. I don’t know where she stands. Will she represent a break with the failed policies of the past? I don’t know.” His linking of a political dynasty to Clinton’s name reminds voters of former President Bill Clinton’s failed policies when he was president. He wants to portray himself as being an experienced legislator who is not afraid of special interest groups, unlike Hilary Clinton whose voting records can be examined. As mentioned by Trent and Friedenberg, Americans are distrustful of dynasties and this is being used against Hillary Clinton. This would be a difficult stance for her to defend herself against in a political debate.
Victoria:
I find this article you are referring to, of particular interest. It always astounds me when politicians at this level always seem to try and portray themselves as just an average working stiff who can truly relate to the normal working class members of society. When politicians get to this level in their career most of them don’t know the simple things in life, for instance how much does a gallon of milk cost. It seems like what is really going on here is another politician trying to get a feel for what the publics concerns are and how they will be perceived by the voters. I find it interesting to find out that he was trying to show himself jamming with his band, kind of a risky move, I would think that some voters would find a band member as being a bit too ordinary and not focused enough on the potential issues, just an example in my opinion of how opinion polls can go either way.