Cool, Another Democratic Candidate for President

While the 2016 GOP field has been characterized by its resemblance to a clown car on methamphetamines, the corresponding Democratic field has been disappointingly small, and, to date, as boring as a race between a political juggernaut and a self-identified socialist from Vermont can be. No longer.

Former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley will “make an announcement about his political plans for 2016 on May 30 in Baltimore,” according to the New York Times. Speculation has swirled for years that the popular progressive (and 2008 Hillary supporter) would eventually run for President, and so on May 30th, we can all pretend to be surprised and scroll through dozens and dozens of “Who Is Martin O’Malley?” web traffic whore explainers.

On that note: Who Is Martin O’Malley? He’s perhaps best known by his fans for his early support of same-sex marriage; he signed Maryland’s same-sex marriage bill into law all the way back in early 2012, despite a testy written exchange with the Archbishop of Baltimore who urged O’Malley, who is Catholic, to keep gays out of marriage. He opposes the death penalty and championed a law that allowed undocumented Maryland students who attend high school in the state for 3 years to qualify for in-state tuition. He’s also, as Democrats almost always are, pro-choice. Ambitious, philandering Baltimore Mayor Tommy Carcetti in The Wire was based on him, a characterization that reportedly made Martin O’Malley kind of mad. He plays the banjo and sings in a band. Here is Martin O’Malley playing guitar.

The last time a popular governor who can play cool guy musical instruments ran for President, the year was 2012, the candidate was Jon Huntsman, and we all know how that turned out. Meanwhile, this was in my inbox this morning: