Gov. Martin O?Malley and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gushed over each other Tuesday morning at the Annapolis City Dock as he endorsed her presidential bid.
The New York senator is the “strong leader who can quickly close the leadership deficit” arising from the “catastrophic blunders of the Bush years,” O?Malley said.
“She is ready today” to be president, he said.
O?Malley praised Clinton?s “toughness, insight, understanding” and “moral strength.” She is someone who been “a championfor working families” and who “will work for energy independence” and has fought to increase homeland security for cities, he said.
“She will bring our troops safely home” from Iraq, O?Malley said.
Most of the questions to Clinton focused on Iraq policy. In response, she said Senate leaders should work out a troop withdrawal resolution with President Bush.
Clinton returned the praise, calling O?Malley “a great partner with the Clinton administration,” one of several ways she reminded the crowd of her own White House role. Clinton promised “quality, affordable health care for every single American, and we?re going to get it done.”
“I know that when Gov. O?Malley puts his mind to something, it happens,” Clinton said. “The ?Believe? campaign struck a real chord with me.”
Clinton and O?Malley laughed, as did the crowd, when a reporter asked whether she would consider the governor as running mate or member of her administration.
“Next question,” said the governor, while Clinton replied, “I?m a big fan of Martin O?Malley.”
As a courtesy, Senate President Thomas Mike Miller showed up to greet Clinton later at Annapolis coffee shop where the senator and governor had stopped, even though he?s leaning toward supporting former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. “I want the Democrat that is most electable,” Miller said, adding he felt Clinton may win the Democratic primaries, but “she?s going to have a difficult time” in the general election because of her high negatives.
But Democratic moneyman John Coale disagreed with Miller?s assessment. As she did in New York and in the Senate, Coale said, Clinton “has the ability to change minds,” and get people to reassess her. “The country is ready for a Democrat” like her, he said.
Coale is a trial lawyer who loaned the O?Malley campaign $500,000 last year to cover campaign debts, but that money was repaidwith 8.5 percent interest in about three months, Coale said.
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