O’Malley: Others can ‘second-guess’ Clinton

Former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.) on Sunday refused to criticize 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign strategy.

{mosads}“I will let others second-guess her strategies,” O’Malley told host Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“The best campaigns are not campaigns that are against but campaigns that are for,” he added.

O’Malley’s comments come as he weighs his own 2016 bid. The former governor expressed surprise on Sunday his party did not have a more crowded field during the next election cycle.

“I’m not sure why that is,” he said after Schieffer asked why Clinton was the only official Democratic candidate thus far.

“It would be an extreme poverty indeed if there was only one person willing to challenge for the Democratic Party’s nomination,” O’Malley argued.

O’Malley claimed he could defeat Clinton and other candidates by connecting more closely with voters. He said that his personable behavior would prove his greatest asset in any potential election.

“I feel the best way to campaign is one-on-one with people,” O’Malley said. “You have to engage with people living room after living room, at luncheons and in kitchens.”

O’Malley said his experience guiding Maryland also distinguished him from Clinton. His tenure in the Old Line State, he claimed, had given him a robust background in improving economic and social conditions.

“I believe I have the ideas that will help our country move forward to where our economy is working again instead of our wages declining,” he said.

O’Malley has promised he will decide on his Oval Office run by late May.

Other potential challengers for Clinton include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Sen. Joe Webb (D-Va.) and Vice President Biden.