Martin O'Malley Wants to Be the Glass-Steagall Candidate (mulling a run to Hillary Clinton's left)

[Karmadillo]

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-23/martin-o-malley-wants-to-be-the-glass-steagall-candidate

Martin O'Malley Wants to Be the Glass-Steagall Candidate
Ben Brody

The former Maryland governor escalated his attack on Wall Street as he mulls a run to Hillary Clinton's left.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who seems to be readying a 2016 run as the un-Hillary, stepped up a campaign line this past weekend: bring back the Glass-Steagall Act.

"Today, most Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on disassembling the Dodd-Frank Act," O'Malley's PAC wrote in an email to supporters Monday. "And too many Democrats have been complicit in the backslide toward less regulation."

It was a complement to what O'Malley declared over the weekend during first swing through Iowa for the year, when he called for tougher sanctions on banks and advocated reinstating Glass-Steagall, Depression-era legislation that separated commercial and investment banking but was largely dismantled during The Clinton Administration. The Dodd-Frank Act, signed in 2010 as a response to financial crisis, promised to put back in place some of Glass-Steagall's protection, but many of the reforms have been stymied.

Democrats "must not allow another Wall Street meltdown to bring down hard-working families," O'Malley said in Iowa Friday, according to the Washington Post. The tough talk on Wall Street would help him in "aggressively positioning himself as an alternative to" Clinton, the Post said. In another article, the paper said O'Malley would run to the former Secretary of State's left on financial issues and quoted him as saying Democrats "can’t let ourselves become the party of Dodd-Frank-lite."

more...

[JaneyVee]

1. Good. The more the merrier. May the best candidate win.

[el_bryanto]

2. That's good - and I agree with him.

I don't know how this message will play in an election, but it is true that our finance grid is broken, deliberately broken, to keep it from function efficiently.

Bryant

[wyldwolf]

3. How does someone 'mull a run to the left?'

I imagine someone sitting around thinking 'should I run to the left... no, the right! ... hmmm... maybe the center?... oh, I don't know!'

[snooper2]

5. That was added by the poster, he didn't say that nor the article

No more Clintons and Bushs...


How difficult is that to understand?

[wyldwolf]

9. How difficult is WHAT to understand?

That YOU don't want another Clinton? That's obvious.

[Karmadillo]

12. Directly from the article.

"The former Maryland governor escalated his attack on Wall Street as he mulls a run to Hillary Clinton's left."

[brooklynite]

4. Here's why he shouldn't...

...I had a long chat about this some years back with Senator Cantwell, and when she talked about restoring Glass-Steagall, I told her not to. NOT because it wasn't a good idea, but because nobody today, outside of Washington insiders and political activists knows what Glass-Steagall means.

I'm reminded of the 2000 campaign debate in which Al Gore challenged George Bush about whether he would support the "Dingell-Norwood bill. Needless to say, almost nobody in the audience was familiar with the name.

Bottom line, restoring banking regulations is important. But don't get involved with inside baseball references. Come up with a new bill, and give it a simple name that voters can understand.

[cali]

11. that's not a bad idea. Reinvent it.

[LWolf]

6. I posted my thoughts

here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6404859

[hedgehog]

7. O'Malley for the win!

[NYC_SKP]

8. I'll support him, if reform isn't addressed then any candidate is disqualified.

These are the tough issues and the ones that need to be addressed and soon.

I'm so sick of the pandering from other candidates and non-candidates.

[Octafish]

10. Great! Siding with the average person over the interests of the powerful sounds like a Democrat.

Is it his habit? Wish it became a habit with us.