Our Next President???

For those of you that may not know, the man above is Martin O'Malley.  He is currently serving his second term as Governor of Maryland and a recent article on CNN dubbed him the "hardest working man in the Democratic Party".  He is so name because  he is well ahead of Hillary Clinton in terms of events planned and states visited.  His poll numbers are low now, but with strong support of issues such as same-sex marriage, repealing the death penalty, and firm anti-gun laws, O'Malley's stock is expected to rise.  

This week in class we looked at the four components that make up the core of a campaigns strategic communication process.  According to Bennett, the four components are message shaping, message salience, message credibility, and message framing (124).  For the purpose of this blog I am going to focus on message shaping and discuss if Martin O'Malley's message fits the description.  

According to Bennett, message shaping is "composing a simple theme or message for the audience to use in thinking about the matter at hand" (124).  O'Malley's initial message doesn't seem to fit the criteria as it involves several complex issues,  The only similarity is that it does have a specific target audience, which is the democratic primary voters. His message points to his successes in the legalization of same-sex marriage, in-state tuition tax breaks for young illegal-immigrants, having top rated schools, enforcing strict anti-gun laws, and repealing the death penalty.  These are all issues that will win him support but I question if it will be enough to make him electable.  Later on in the interview he goes on to say that "The twin themes he encounters most, are frustration with Washington and a palpable sense of economic anxiety".  It is my opinion that his message should focus on combating these two issues if he is to stand any chance of winning the primaries, much less the general election.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/08/politics/martin-omalley-2016/indlex.htm