Democrat Martin O’Malley won’t formally announce whether he is running for president until Saturday, but a video of him strumming “Hail to the Chief” on an acoustic guitar is a strong hint.
The cheeky 24-second video begins with O’Malley tuning up a guitar, and then eventually picking out the notes of “Hail to the Chief.” He concludes with a small shrug, smile and a nod. The screen fades to black and reads “Stay Tuned.”
O’Malley’s rollout video stands in sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton’s sleek, meticulously produced campaign rollout video. Clinton’s videos flashed between various target voter groups groups — LGBT, Hispanics, African-Americans and women — before focusing back on the candidate herself. But with O’Malley, it’s just him and the guitar.
This is not the first time the former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor has picked up the instrument. O’Malley was frontman of a local Irish rock band and has been known to strum on the campaign trail.
O’Malley is scheduled to make an announcement Saturday morning in Baltimore’s Federal Hill Park. The event will include music by one of O’Malley’s favorite rock groups, the Kelly Bell Band.
At age 52, O’Malley is over a decade younger than Hillary Clinton, and over two decades younger than Bernie Sanders. He will likely play up his relative youth and energy during the 2016 primary campaign.
