Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley recently wrote an op-ed endorsing further regulation of Wall Street to prevent another financial crisis. Just as noteworthy as the sentiment of the article is where it was published, the Des Moines Register of Iowa.
In recent weeks O'Malley has been signaling a clear interest in a run for the presidency and appears to be positioning himself on Hillary Clinton's left flank with on a platform of "reinstating Glass-Steagall banking regulations, hiking the capital gains tax, increasing the minimum wage, raising the threshold for overtime pay and strengthening collective bargaining rights." A progressive message no doubt and certainly to the left of Wall Street-friendly Clinton.
On Sunday the Boston Globe made an open appeal to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to run for president saying there needed to be a progressive populist in the Democratic Party and that "Democrats would be making a big mistake if they let Hillary Clinton coast to the presidential nomination without real opposition."
Given Warren's popularity within the party due primarily to her ideas, there seems to be a solid constituency for a progressive economic populist to run. But Warren has stated repeatedly and concretely that she is not running for president in 2016, so who will take up the mantle?
The O'Malley op-ed in the Des Moines Register claims efforts to gut Dodd-Frank are finding support in the Democratic Party and that "[T]oo many Democrats have been complicit in the backslide toward less regulation." It's no secret that the faction of the party backing a Dodd-Frank rollback is the same one most supportive of a Hillary Clinton candidacy. So is O'Malley picking a fight?
Such a fight could be exactly what the Democratic Party needs to clarify the boundaries (if any) of Democratic Party support for Wall Street.
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