Martin O’Malley is ending his time on the Iowa campaign trail the same way he began it: with a smile

from On The Trail W/Sarah Beckman:



In the final days leading up to caucus night, the third place Democratic presidential candidate made his way through the Hawkeye state with the same retail political campaign approach, stopping in living rooms, on front porches, in coffee shops, bars, and college campuses. During each event, no matter the location, O’Malley arrived and left with the same optimistic smile he’s carried throughout this campaign. Despite what the polls show and despite being bombarded by outside media attempting to catch him off guard, O’Malley and his Iowa team refuse to waver from this positive outlook. It’s this resilience that is keeping O’Malley alive and viable for his supporters as well.

“I flew in all the way from South Carolina just to come out and help him this weekend,” said Carlyle Steele during O’Malley’s Des Moines campaign office phone banking event on Saturday. “He’s just so inspiring, you know? So positive, so warm, so determined. So I knocked doors and had a drink earlier and I’m feelin’ just fine. We gotta do well here so I can see him South Carolina. There’s just nothing else to it.”

“His youth and his energy are there, and he’s articulate and charming,” said Tom Leffler, a metro political leader who’s wife has been following O’Malley for more than two decades. “But his clarity of purpose of hanging in there, getting it done, and the way he goes about it is just what we need, and we get excited about it.”

And O’Malley himself is feeding off the large crowds, which have shown up at every single stop this week (though to be fair, many of them are out-of-towners).

“Go to your caucus on Monday night, and when you and your neighbors are determining who can best bring us together, of the three of us, who has the best chance to pull our country together, win this election, build on the good things President Obama has done,” said O’Malley to a crowded bar in Ames on Wednesday. “I want you to hold strong in that first alignment. When people split into their corners, I want you to hold strong, not just for me, but I want you to hold strong for that country that you carry in your heart, because there’s a lot of forces that have tried to tell you what the outcome is going to be before caucus night. They’d like you to believe that there’s only two people in this race and that we’ve become such an impoverished party, that we’re a party of either or. So I want you to hold strong. And I want you to hold strong and I want you to think of those kids that are only going to be in third grade once in their life, and I want you to hold strong for them. And I want you to lift me up to viability in that second realignment.”

On the eve of the caucus Sunday afternoon, O’Malley maintained this position in front of supporters in Johnston as well, but he also took the time to express gratitude he’s felt on the trail.

“I want to say thank you, because there is no place on the planet in determining the trajectory in this race than here in Iowa,” said O’Malley. “Every individual citizen matters…I’m not here to praise you, I’m here to challenge you…Look, the challenges we face as a nation are great, but they’re not greater than us. We can overcome any challenge…but we do that by holding strong to our American values…I want you to hold strong, O’Malley people.”


read: http://sarahbeckman.tumblr.com/post/138442608687/part-one-on-iowa-caucus-eve-omalley-remaining


Kristin Sosanie ?@ksosanie 5h5 hours ago
@MartinOMalley making a few calls with vols in Cedar Rapids for #iacaucus #GOTC