Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley confirmed he is is likely run for president in 2016 at his final National Governors Association meeting on Saturday. He has been chairman of that body like Governor Bill Clinton before him.
“By the end of this year, we’re on course to have a body of work that lays the framework of the candidacy for 2016,” said the term-limited Democratic governor, according to Politico.com.
O’Malley who traces his roots to Galway and Mayo recently spent a week in Ireland and made a major policy speech while there.
He noted several high-profile talks he has delivered on issues he would build his Democratic nomination campaign around, including an address on climate change, a speech the Center of American Progress about growing the middle class, and the speech he made recently in Ireland.
O'Malley lamented "a crisis of confidence" facing the country and said the Democratic Party has not "done a good enough job selling our accomplishments."
“You still see a lot of angst and anxiety for the vast majority of people who are working hard every day and seeing their buying power go flat and even decline,” he said. “We’re going through this crisis of confidence, and great republics sometimes go through these periods. Individuals call them the dark night of the soul.
“We’re going through a period of time of confusion and a time of polarization and a real crisis of whether or not we’re still capable as a people of accomplishing big and important things, none more important than restoring the balance to our economy so that our middle class can continue to grow and give more opportunities to each successive generation.
“We will get through that period, of that I have no doubt, but I don’t think we’ll get through that period by 2014. So you’re going to have this debate rage in all the states and among 36 governors as to whose theory works.”
“It’s probably going to continue...for a couple more cycles,” he added.
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