Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said Sunday that the stumbling U.S. economy will not prevent President Obama from winning re-election.
Mr. O’Malley, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Nation,” said American voters understand that the president’s jobs proposals and economic plans have been stymied by congressional Republicans.
“We have a very, very obstructionist wing of the Republican Party,” the governor said.
“None of us is really better off than we were before this huge Bush recession,” he said, but voters, he predicted, would back the president over a GOP candidate.
Mr. O’Malley defended the president against criticism that Mr. Obama is stoking a class war with his rhetoric about taxing the wealthy.
“It’s difficult to talk about the gross inequality … without those people in the highest income bracket becoming defensive about it,” he said.
Host Candy Crowley asked the two-term Maryland governor if he was positioning himself for a 2016 run for the presidency.
A smiling Mr. O’Malley refused to answer, saying only that he was focused on helping Mr. Obama get re-elected in 2012.
• David Eldridge can be reached at deldridge@washingtontimes.com.
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