Extra Credit Blog: Vote for O'Malley!

Citizens of the United States, I am here to explain to you why you should support Martin O’Malley in the upcoming election. There are countless ways to get involved, whether that be voting, working a phone bank, volunteering, or giving money—Martin O’Malley needs all the help he can get!

What you need to know about Martin O’Malley:

1. He has experience in office. O’Malley is the former Governor of Maryland, Mayor of Baltimore, and a city councilor. 

 2. Martin O’Malley is results oriented. O’Malley created his own program during his time in office called CitiStat which tracked how well Baltimore government was serving its citizens.

 3. He is an enthusiastic leader. I mean come on, listen to the man talk! He’s not like every other candidate that is for sure. 

 4. He needs your help to win this election, as he is competing with the two big democrat front runners Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. Visit O’Malley’s website for links to help support him and his cause!

Reasons you should help Martin O’Malley:

1. He inspired a TV character on The Wire. Has any other candidate done that? No. Trump might inspire some incredible internet memes, but O’Malley actually inspired a character on a respectable TV show. Obviously O’Malley is the real deal. 

 2. He takes snap chats of himself at the gym. Wait actually he has SOMEONE ELSE take snap chats of him working out at the gym. Unheard of! Who wouldn’t want to donate money to O’Malley’s campaign after watching him bench-press significant amounts of weight? Not only that, but he also multitasks at the gym by practicing his upcoming speeches while bench-pressing. What a guy! That kind of dedication is what we need in a president, am I right?

 3. He is in a band. He plays the guitar and he sings. Learning to play an instrument is not an easy task! We need someone in office with O’Malley’s determination and confidence. Plus, he can sing to us when he’s giving speeches and for that reason, O’Malley has my vote!

 4. He’s young(er) and hip and gets that change needs to occur. Think about if you took some time to volunteer for O’Malley and how fun that would be. Not only would he offer you some fresh perspectives in life, but he would probably let you take a snap chat selfie with him, and that is important.

 5. He’s good looking. He has a whole buzzfeed article written about his looks, I respect that. Think about it, you could be the next “Obama girl” and make a YouTube video with the title “O’Malley girl”. You would get a ton of publicity and also help out my candidate Martin O’Malley!

Overall, there are a plethora of reasons you should help out Martin O’Malley and his campaign. If you are even the slightest bit intrigued after reading this blog post (I don’t see why you wouldn’t be), you should check out his web page https://martinomalley.com/ to learn about the more serious side of his campaign. O’Malley’s web page features easy links that allow you to donate, learn about volunteer opportunities, and learn about his campaign goals and what he’s doing right now!

Blog 10: Agenda Setting

 After looking at Martin O'Malley's website and examining his "vision" link, I think I have a pretty good idea of which issues are on O'Malley's main agenda. As you can see, O'Malley has a "15 Goals" link and then 14 other links under that. I thought it was most important/helpful to look at the "15 Goals" link to figure out which issues were the most important. O'Malley's first goal is to "Increase American families' median net worth by $25,000 in 10 years". His second goal is to "Generate 100% of American Electricity with renewable energy by 2050" (Remember this? Skip to 0:45)

Goal number 3 is to "Cut the unemployment rate among young people in half within 3 years." Goal 4 is "Reach full employment for American veterans by 2020. And goal number 5 is "put 11 million new Americans on the pathway to citizenship through comprehensive immigration reform." I think these 5 goals reflect the top 5 "issues" O'Malley and his campaign's agenda. The 14 issues under O'Malley's vision tab are posted alphabetically, but his 15 goals section seem to be ranked in priority. Not only this, but these 5 issues seem to be the issues he talks about the most. 



When looking at O'Malley's opposer Hillary Clinton, the first 5 issues listed on her site were 1. Campaign finance reform, Campus Sexual assault, Climate change and energy, College, and Criminal justice reform. Hillary's issues differ from O'Malley's in that her top issues seem to be on social issues, rather than economic (although that is not the case for all of them).

O'Malley and Clinton's agendas are similar in that they both agree to focus on climate change. I think if you look further down on both of their lists, you will find more similarities. However, if I am assuming that the order of these issues represents their priority to the candidate, it seems they do not have a very similar top 5. I think one of the reasons O'Malley has different issues he's focused on would be because he is having to try and differentiate himself from Hillary. He can't have all the same goals and beliefs as his opponents and expect to win because of it. He has to make himself stand out in some way, and I think that's why there is some what of a difference. I think he's doing a good job of that and is succeeded in setting his agenda effectively.

Blog #9: Press Coverage

 

After conducting a Google news search on Martin O'Malley, I noticed a few reoccurring themes between the types of stories that were being written about him. First, several of the stories are discussing O'Malley and Hillary Clinton. The first story that pops up is a TIME article titled "Martin O’Malley Hits Hillary Clinton for Saying ‘Illegal Immigrants’". Secondly, the majority of the articles are discussing immigration. At least they are not talking about him being tough on crime right now, WOO HOO! Way to go Martin, thanks for giving them something else to talk about, I was starting to get really bored.

Most of the media outlets covering O'Malley are big, well known news sites like TIME, and The New York Times. Local news sites are also writing stories about him. I think that it is probably good for O'Malley that he is not just being talked about on sites that strictly cover politics. Not everyone visits Politifact on a daily basis, but they might read an article on TIME pretty frequently.

From what I can tell, O'Malley is not the one generating the news. Most of the articles I have read discuss Martin O'Malley from an outside perspective, mostly opinion based. They are writing on things that happened in debates or speeches, not actually interviewing Martin O'Malley. In several of the articles, O'Malley is not even the center of attention. The articles are almost always disusing one of the leading democrats (like Hillary) and then discussing O'Malley in relation to that candidate. However, I think the media is starting to do a better job at writing about O'Malley in a way that will set him up well for the 2016 presidential campaign. Martin O'Malley is starting to distinguish himself from other candidates, and the media has noticed. This will be especially important for O'Malley to do since he is often in Hillary's shadow. I think O'Malley should continue seeking coverage from big media outlets that do not just cover politics, however coverage from those sites are important too. Having a variety seems to be the most beneficial for candidates. I also think that if O'Malley were to get talked about on more entertainment media outlets, that could also do him good. Not many people know or really care about who O'Malley is. If he can get his name out there and get himself talked about, he has a better shot at votes. What I'm really suggesting here is that O'Malley should go on Ellen. Who doesn't love Ellen? I know I would for sure tune into that episode!

Blog #8: Pop Culture and Politics

For my pop culture representation, I decided to use the Democratic Debate Cold Open SNL skit. In this video, Martin O'Malley is clearly presented as a less important democratic candidate. The opening line of the skit O'Malley's character says, "Hello, I'm Martin O'Malley. This is what my voice sounds like, this is what my face looks like. When I was Mayor of Baltimore, I did such a good job they made two TV shows about my city, 'Homocide' and "The Wire,'". Per usual, the skit exaggerates several things that are commonly talked about when Martin O'Malley's name comes up; the face that he is not well known, he was such a "great" Mayor of Baltimore, that he inspired a character in the TV show "The Wire", and that he has a bad rep for his tough on crime principles. Furthermore in the skit, O'Malley hardly talks at all. His ending line is, "America, I know I may not have been much to listen to tonight,". 

 

Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: Giving a Speech

This artifact (SNL skit) pushes back against the image the candidate seems to be wanting to create for himself because it is just illustrating the same facts over and over again. It is proving to be impossible for O'Malley to escape the image of being too tough on crime, of inspiring a TV character, and of not being very important. Everything I read that is not directly put out by O'Malley's campaign just points out those same things over and over (sorry this is probably so repetitive because I discuss it in every blog, that's how prominent it is). The image O'Malley is wanting to create is that he is experienced and he can get things done. The media or pop culture on the other hand, does not want to focus on this. This artifact definitely does not shape or change the image O'Malley is trying to project, but it should! It is time for O'Malley to do something different to get talked about.

Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: A quote from said speech

 As always, I have been keeping up with O'Malley's SnapChat and have posted the pictures on his story from yesterday through out my blog post. I do not know who runs O'Malley's SnapChat, but they probably think I am super weird because I am constantly screenshoting every image and video they post. It worked out well that he posted an update that coincides with this blog post, because I think this is a cool way to compare how pop culture wants to represent O'Malley, and how O'Malley's campaign wants to represent him. His presence on snap chat is always very causal and always present him interacting with the public in a fun and causal way. In one image, O'Malley is singing and playing guitar for the crowd (evidently after giving a speech) and then arm wrestling in another. Kind of strange if you ask me, but this seems to be the reoccurring theme throughout his presence on SnapChat.
 

Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: O'Malley singing and playing guitar

 If you are interested in following Martin O'Malley on SnapChat his username is "governoromalley". I would highly recommend it because you get to see images like these which in a way, allow you to get to know his personality.

Update on O'Malley's SnapChat Story 11/5/15: O'Malley arm wrestling

Blog #7: Polarization and Bias

"Liberal" media outlet- Slate:

"Liberal" media outlet- Slate article

"Conservative" media outlet- The Blaze:

"Conservative" media outlet- The Blaze article 

For my "Liberal" media story, I chose a story from Slate.com written this October. In the article, the author discusses how the less known democratic candidates should present themselves in the upcoming debate. For my "Conservative" media story, I chose a story from TheBlaze.com written this past July. In the article the author discusses a group of demonstrators protesting at presidential forum during O'Malley's time on stage. I decided to use stories from Slate and The Blaze based off a Washington Post article that ranked them the most liberal website and the most conservative website. 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the-media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based-on-their-audiences/ 

 Over all I didn't really see a huge difference in how O'Malley was portrayed in these stories. It was kind of hard to even find relevant or recent articles on O'Malley on either of these sites. I think that definitely confirms what I've learned in my research so far; not many people even know who Martin O'Malley is. The subtle difference I did notice in the two stories would just be the overall tone of the articles. The Slate article is pretty harsh in the sense that it reiterates the fact that, "This [campaign strategy] has gotten O’Malley nowhere. He has zero traction in polls, and he’s still unknown in much of the country". With that, it still had a hopeful tone discussing how this debate was O'Malley's chance to let America know exactly who he is. The conservative outlet on the other hand wrote an article on perhaps the biggest controversy surrounding O'Malley's run for presidency; the death of African-American man Freddie Gray at the hands of Baltimore police. While Slate also featured articles written about this incident, I was also able to find recent articles about O'Malley and his run for presidency. This was not the case on The Blaze. I think the most recent article under the article I chose was from 2012. I think that is unfair and does contribute to polarization in society and in our political system for several reasons. First, if a conservative user is seeking out information on O'Malley, and the only articles they see about him are ones discussing how people are protesting during his interviews due to the death of Freddie Gray, that will probably lead to them to not thinking highly of O'Malley or just not thinking about him at all. I think it's also a big deal because generally speaking, democrats are supposed to be big on fighting racial inequality, racial profiling, and things of that nature. It really looks bad for a democratic candidate who is supposed to posses these liberal values, to be the face behind a "tough on crime" policy that leads to cases of police brutality and poor treatment of black Americans by law enforcement. It's just another reason for conservatives like my great uncle to make facebook posts ending in "defend this liberals". *actual post from my great uncle, occur daily*

Overall if anyone reads either of these articles they're going to learn about the same thing every article says about O'Malley, that he's low in the polls and that he was involved with the tough on crime Freddie Gray controversy. Its hard to learn about a candidate who doesn't have a decent number of diverse articles written about him.

 Resources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the-media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based-on-their-audiences/