Why did O'Malley do so poorly during the debates?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

When I heard him at Obama's convention, I was almost as moved as when i heard OBama in 04 at Kerry's convention.

Yet, he completely failed to impress me during the debates.

Is it because there was so much back and forth between Clinton and Sanders, that his voice got lost? Or is it because he is not a good debater?

[LP2K12]

1. I like O'Malley.

I feel like he was overshadowed by Clinton and Sanders. He has time to grow and practice. I don't feel that the media paid him much attention either.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

2. agreed. i am not writing him off, but i am asking if other people have seen him debate

and if he has done better during those debates

[MFM008]

35. The media had their candidates

Anyone else just got in the way.

[mcar]

38. I agree

I don't think we've seen the last of him.

[LaydeeBug]

3. It is because the Corporate Media wanted a Clinton/Sanders slug out and O'Malley

BEATS Republicans.

We can only have 'strongly worded letters'

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. that might be true in other areas, was not true for the debate

his debate performance was his own.

[LaydeeBug]

6. But you're asking a question that only you can answer...

I can't tell you why he failed to impress you during the debate.

Somedays you want chicken. Somedays chicken is just *meh*. It's all in the atmosphere I guess.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. not just me, he failed to impress generally.

but my question is, have people seen him shine at other debates? i know he can deliver a good speech because i heard a great speech from him.

[KittyWampus]

10. Except who the moderators give the mic to and who they ask questions makes a big difference.

You can't say all the various Medias influenced the primaries to favor Trump at the expense of the other Republicans and then say they couldn't do the same in the Democratic Primary.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. i don't think the debate moderators are the ones who favored trump

i think the ones who gave him free airtime did

i dont think the debate moderators failed overall. i actually think for the ones i saw (the D ones), they were pretty good.

[KittyWampus]

19. Sorry, debate moderators make a difference. Who they ask and what questions they ask.

I could possibly go find something that broke down the time O'Malley got versus Clinton and Sanders.

But do I really need to?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. no, i see what you are saying. i am trying to say that my views are not inconsistent

i do think the TV media helped trump by giving him free air time. that being said, i dont think the debates necessarily helped trump.

[Exilednight]

46. The debates helped Hillary. Moderators had their favorites, and they pitted them against each other

They helped Trump, too.

If you're a producer and have five minutes of Cruz and 30 minutes of Trump, it's not hard to figure out who will have more soundbites.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

48. of course the debates helped hillary, she came prepared. the debates against trump, also helped her

she does well in debates

[jfern]

43. The corporate media never wanted a Sanders anything

They were giving 5 Republicans more attention than Bernie who was actually polling well. Not a surprise that O'Malley also got ignored.

[liberalmike27]

5. Well

We had one of him already, in Clinton.

On the other hand, we did not have an old Democrat type, like Bernie.

People tried to make him out to be different, but in truth Bernie is simply a Democrat, of old--except he holds all of the new gay, guns, and abortion positions new Democrats do, with all of the Economic populism of an FDR.

So we had the same in O'Malley (who I've heard and liked before too), and something more resembling an oasis looming up after a long walk in the desert, with Sanders.

[KittyWampus]

7. That is bogus and ignores the reality of O'Malley's record and his proposals. Sanders supporters

aren't entitled to their own version of reality on DU.

Nor are they entitled to say Sanders was more "progressive" than he actually is.

Sanders was all rhetoric. His plans didn't work out. Need proof, please see his interview with editorial board. He FAILED.

Oh, and he never released his taxes either.

[NCTraveler]

30. +1 Really was a completely inaccurate portrayal of O'Malley.

I'm convinced many of the comments, on a wide array of issues, are coming from people who didn't watch or listen to anyone except one person.

[mcar]

39. Yes

O'Malley seems a fine Democrat. People really need to get over putting Bernie on a pedestal.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. sanders did not sound like an oasis to me

he sounded like a man with big ideas and no details, and i like details. Obama had big ideas and details. he sounded like an oasis.

[JCanete]

45. big ideas are only possible if you have the people behind them. They are never possible if you

don't actually push any forward. The specifics seem largely beyond the point, since moderate policy is as unlikely in our government as major policy. Spend all the time in the world writing the perfect legislation that does the right amount of pocket padding of the right companies in order to get that little bit of good change through, and you can be damned sure that you wasted your breath come time to actually get it enacted. There is no such thing as reaching across the aisle.

Clinton offered up just about nothing to get people fired up about. She basically wanted to give us the impression that we were in good hands, don't worry our pretty heads, she's got us. She was going to wonk us into the future with little tweaks here and there...you know, shit we couldn't possibly understand, but rest assured the adults were going to be at the table.

Again, if she wasn't rallying the people behind the change she was bringing, she wasn't bringing change, because you can't do it from the inside alone, even if you get inside.

I have great respect for Obama, and great respect for Hillary Clinton as well, but what big ideas? On message, thank GOD we had him for 8 years. He made us a kinder more thoughtful, more compassionate nation...at least in tone. And we got the ACA ...with the unspoken blessing of the insurance companies. Don't get me wrong, I'm bullish on it as a starting point, assuming the negatives of it didn't poison the well for too many people, but as to ideas, Clinton and Obama are fairly moderate.They are for working within a system its way, not changing the system. With that approach, it doesn't matter how many steps they help us to take forward, we're at a point of corporate control that we will always take twice as many backwards

[FSogol]

12. He barely got to speak at the debates.

O'Malley was a policy wonk who saw technology and old fashioned hard work as the cure for society's ills and governmental inefficiencies.
(As evidence, check out his policies in DU's O'Malley group. I listed them all here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/12813600 ) He had more comprehensive, workable plans than any other candidate, reminding me of Harry Hopkins (the architect of FDR's New Deal).
He had more executive results than HRC and Sanders.

His failing? He was the hard working expert in the age of reality tv stars, falsehoods, truthiness, and shock value. America would rather be entertained and create fantasies than eat their vegetables. America elected a total idiot because they are idiots themselves.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. i think that's very fair

[JHan]

51. +100000000000000000

[newblewtoo]

55. I believe you nailed it here:

His failing? He was the hard working expert in the age of reality tv stars, falsehoods, truthiness, and shock value. America would rather be entertained and create fantasies than eat their vegetables. America elected a total idiot because they are idiots themselves.
I also believe MOM could have won had the deck not been stacked against him. I thought at the time we were experiencing a
"Bob Dole" moment and feel vindicated in that opinion.

[dawg]

13. Maybe he wasn't willing to go into all-out attack mode against ...

fellow Democrats.

I think we would have seen a vastly different Martin O'Malley had he ever gotten the opportunity to debate Donald J. Trump.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

15. that's an excellent point. i'll give o'malley this, his line from the debate is the one that has

stuck with me. i think it was something to the effect of, look at what we are talking about here and look at what the GOP is debating... it was a pretty excellent line

[FSogol]

21. Yeah, good point. n/t

[femmocrat]

14. They never gave him any air time.

He rarely got a question and was pretty much ignored on stage. He really only had his record in Maryland to refer to while the other two candidates dominated the debates.

I also thought he was a great convention speaker. I hope he runs again. I like him a lot!

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. i hope he does too

[DemocraticWing]

18. I thought he came off as too aggressive in at least one of the debates.

I'm guessing that was a strategy to make up for not being well known, but it's not his natural style and looked awkward.

Overall, primary debates are crafted by the media to fit what they think is the narrative. Sometimes they aren't very fair.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. i remember that too

[frazzled]

20. On the "failure to impress" part

I had the same reaction, and am ashamed to admit that what bugged me was pretty much a stylistic factor. He seemed to me to have an old-fashioned, somewhat awkward, stentorian speaking style, like a politician of old pouring forth declamations from the back of a train. It felt unnatural and forced. That is all. And it wasn't much, but it was enough to make me think, "meh." It was nothing, of course, compared to the growling, finger-wagging, angry underbite that was Bernie Sanders, which totally drove me up a tree (even my husband would say "turn the sound off!" whenever he came on). But given that O'Malley appeared to bring nothing special to the table otherwise, I was not tempted to choose him over Clinton.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

23. i mean i also really loved Hillary, had it been Sanders vs O'Malley

i would have picked O'malley in less than a heartbeat.

[duffyduff]

27. I got sick of Sanders totally after the Univision debate, I think it was

where it showed that video clip of him bragging about Castro. I was pissed off royal because I had given money to his campaign and felt I was conned knowing that the existence of that clip, not to mention all of those writings he did, disqualified him from the presidency.

Later, when he outright LIED about the pope visit, he pretty much made my shitlist.

[Garrett78]

42. I wondered if someone would mention that. He seemed to be acting.

As you say, his speaking style came across as "unnatural and forced."

[duffyduff]

25. I like O'Malley, but he has a major problem.

His problem, which was obvious in those debates, is that he stammers. Not a good trait to have when you have to be constantly in the public eye.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

52. And didn't help that O'Malley came across as overly aggressive in the debates, at least to me, in comparison to Bernie, who also sucked up a lot of "journalistic oxygen."

[NWCorona]

26. It was the debates that actually made me take notice of O'Malley

And thought that he did pretty good. He just didn't have a chance being in the ring with Hillary and Bernie.

[NCTraveler]

28. I was big for O'Malley.

His back was against the wall and he had to try and forcefully interject himself. That is never a good position to be in right out of the gate. It was clear early on that the media was going to make Sanders the horse in the race. They worked hard for that. O'Malley does need to work on his command of delivery. It isn't his strongest trait. From the second he dropped out I was hoping for him to head the DNC. He is a wonk and I think the perfect fit for the job.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

29. yeah, wish he hadn't dropped out.

[PoliticAverse]

33. Once you drop enough in the polls the money dries up and continuing isn't practical. n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

34. i mean for dnc chair.

[CrispyQ]

31. The only debate I watched was a town hall type, where each candidate was on the stage alone with

Anderson Cooper, (I think it was AC). AC & the audience got to ask questions. The first thing MOM did was stand up & take his jacket off. I loved the energy! Like he was ready to get to work. I blame the media for focusing on HRC/Bernie. The media had a circus on the right & a horse race on the left. Remember that CBS CEO said that Trump might not be good for America but he was good for CBS. They really don't care what's good for America.

[Auggie]

32. I would say he never found a voice

Sanders and Clinton are tough acts to follow. Each had positioned themselves very strongly while O'Malley seemed to be struggling to find his "voice." Could be he needed stronger/different rhetoric with which to fight. I agree with you about facts -- while the other two spoke in generalities and repeated many of the same dialog, maybe O'Malley could have differentiated himself with detail.

[Raine]

36. I like him, I hope he runs in 2020.. nt

[StevieM]

37. I like O'Malley and I think he did well in some debates. His worst moment was when the data breach

happened. One of Sanders' staffers breaches Clinton's data wall and the DNC locked Sanders out of the system. There was a huge uproar over it.

Everyone expected Clinton to hammer Sanders over it, like the way she would have been crucified if the roles were reversed. Instead, HRC was very gracious and Sanders was gracious in response.

O'Malley wasn't expecting this. He said something about "all this bickering." It was very awkward and confusing and it was what people saw of him in the post-debate news coverage. That was basically the moment that his campaign ended.

[aikoaiko]

40. He can come across as smug with a frat boy demeanor.

I doubt that's how he is, but I think he came across that way.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. Because he's the candidate equivalent of the Dave Matthews Band

He's got the chops to take it to 11, but he never goes past 4.5

[mtnsnake]

44. Poor stage presence. Plus, he was simply out of his league

Compared to Clinton and Sanders, he came off as being...well...a little on the deficient side. It was like an amateur playing with seasoned pros.

[JCanete]

47. O'Malley's affect bothered the hell out of me. It felt fake.

Couple that with his dubious record as mayor of Baltimore and Governor of Maryland that did not match up with his campaign rhetoric on law enforcement, not to mention a basically more-of-the-same, moderate mentality on how to lead in Washington, there was nothing there that excited me.

Aside from his eloquent and heart-felt support of Muslim Americans, he felt to me like another Suit.

[FSogol]

50. Facts say otherwise. Ham and Cheese!

[JCanete]

56. Which facts? If I was wrong on something, pointing it out...

...would have been awesome.That was so specific I don't even know which part of what I said you are contradicting.

[ismnotwasm]

49. He was over shadowed

Both Clinton and Sanders had a certain dynamism. Both had people deeply devoted to them.

O'Malley is the shit though-he could be our next rising star

[Renew Deal]

53. He got crowded out

Hillary and Bernie sucked up all the oxygen. But I'm not convinced he would have won in 2008 either. He was very stiff.

[TheKentuckian]

54. He came across as wooden/maybe even inauthentic to me

More though he just didn't seem to have any footing and a lot his support seemed to be be pending Clinton to me.