O'Malley seeks to stand out during Keene stop.
When Martin O’Malley has time to talk, he does — covering topics from renewable energy to immigration reform, foreign policy to bipartisan cooperation.
Although the Democratic presidential candidate has been overshadowed on the national debate stage by fellow candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, O’Malley took center stage during a stop at The Sentinel to meet with the paper’s editorial board, and a visit to C&S Wholesale Grocers in Keene on Monday.
One of the most important issues, he said, is focusing on cleaner, greener energy sources, especially in light of the talks on climate change earlier this month in Paris. O’Malley hopes to have 100 percent renewable energy powering the U.S. by 2050.
This will be done through programs like off-shore wind farms, O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, told a group of about 50 C&S employees.
The growth of the clean energy sector will help rebuild any jobs lost from other energy suppliers, O’Malley said.
“I think there’s a lot more jobs to be created in the infrastructure of moving to a clean economy,” he said.
O’Malley said he opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought oil from Canada to the U.S. but was rejected by President Barack Obama. “I believe that it was not in our nation’s interest to pipe in dirty tar sand oil from Canada that actually works against our goal of moving to 100 percent clean electric energy,” O’Malley said.
He’s also against the proposed Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline, which would run through southern New Hampshire, and “I believe those that want to build it have to make a case as to why it’s in the public interest if they want to use eminent domain.”
O’Malley, who is polling at 4 percent, is also calling for comprehensive immigration reform, a change he believes will bolster the economy.
By bringing “11 million of our neighbors out from an underground, off-the-books shadow economy,” wages will go up and more entrepreneurial businesses will be started, he said.
And, while addressing the Syrian refugee crisis, he took a hard jab at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, calling his rhetoric reckless and not fitting of a commander in chief.
“We have a responsibility as citizens to push back against this scapegoating language — these appeals from Donald Trump that history tells us proceed the path of fascism. It’s not an overstatement.
“I never thought that during the course of the presidential campaign, I’d feel a responsibility to call it that, but that is what it is. When a candidate for president finds that his poll numbers are fed and fueled by saying that we should issue ID cards for Americans based on their faith, that we should be cutting off travel to people based on their faith, that’s a very dangerous path.”
O’Malley spoke broadly of the increased opportunities for “new American immigrants” that he would help foster; he said when he was Maryland’s governor, he supported the DREAM Act to provide in-state public tuition rates to undocumented immigrants who qualified.
O’Malley also is in favor of allowing Syrian refugees to come to America, a topic that’s been debated recently, especially after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would ban all Muslims from entering the country.
The U.S., “in our better days, always understood that our greatest strength and our strongest principle was our compassion,” he said.
During the course of the hour-long editorial board Monday, O’Malley often expressed frustration with what he said was a lack of important topics discussed by the other two candidates during the Democratic presidential debates.
And, he said, he stands out for reaching across the aisle while governor, taking a dig at one of Clinton’s answers during the first debate about which enemies candidates were most proud of. Clinton, to laughter, listed “probably the Republicans.”
O’Malley said though he was supported by a primarily Democratic-controlled state, he often got policies passed by garnering key Republican votes.
“I’m not a divider,” he said. “I bring people together and get things done.”
http://www.sentinelsource.com/news/local/o-malley-seeks-to-stand-out-during-keene-stop/article_592d47d7-c1ef-5e5a-bc94-139bd544d9f6.html
INCLUDES Video of interview with Editorial Board.
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