Is O'Malley being punished for THIS?

[CoffeeCat]

It appears that O'Malley may be railroaded out of the next debate. I was wondering if excluding him from the debate had anything to do with this:

On Saturday, January 9 both Sanders and O'Malley will appear together in Des Moines, Iowa.

Hillary will not be there.

Here are the event details, from the Des Moines Register:

[u]First Christian Church, 2500 University Ave, Des Moines, IA
Putting Families First Presidential Forum with Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. Event is partnership of the Center for Community Change Action and the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement Action Fund, in partnership with The Nation.

In Iowa today (Friday), Sanders is having a press conference on paid family leave. He'll be discussing his views as well as exposing Hillary Clinton's inadequate action on this issue (but who knows. She's craven enough to attempt to co-op Bernie's Wall Street message. She'll probably do the same with this issue).

Sanders, no doubt will be leveraging his pro-family policies and ideas at this Saturday event with O'Malley--after launching his ideas on Friday (today) during a press conference.

Is it possible that O'Malley and Sanders may be teaming up a bit?

[sufrommich]

1. That doesn't even make sense.Are you suggesting O'Mally

is "being punished" but Sanders isn't? Why?

[Betty Karlson]

2. Because punishing both would be too obvious?

DWS is often oblivious, but she is capable of learning from her OMG-Data-Leak!!!!1111!!!111ONE!!!!! mistake.

[CoffeeCat]

4. I'm asking the question

I'm not saying that I know the answers.

It would be difficult to exclude Sanders from the debate, don't you think?

The 5 percent threshold easily gets rid of O'Malley.

If there's any indication that O'Malley and Sanders may be teaming up--I imagine that this would be met with a truckload of outrage from the establishment.

...with retribution to follow.

We've got O'Malley and Sanders hosting an Iowa event; an event with which Clinton is not involved.

It's a logical question.

[sufrommich]

6. O'Malley publicly accused the Sanders campaign of not

seriously objecting to the number of debates. I'm going to take a calculated guess that neither of those campaigns is embracing the other.

[CoffeeCat]

9. That was a few weeks ago

and in this campaign cycle, three weeks is equivalent to three years.

So, why are O'Malley and Sanders both appearing at a "Putting Families First Presidential Forum" Iowa event; an event that Hillary is not scheduled to attend?

Is that not a valid question?

[NurseJackie]

3. Huh? Wha? Huh?

[MADem]

5. He's being "punished" for not connecting at the FIVE PERCENT mark with the people who are going

to be voting in the primaries.

If not even five percent of your customers want what you're selling, it's time to discontinue the item.

He'd be very good as a color analyst talking about campaign - specific stuff in the run up to the election; one of the networks should hire him. He might do well as a talking head, short term.

He could use the experience to introduce himself to a larger audience again--no one ever knew who the hell he was. That was his problem from the get-go.

[brooklynite]

7. 1) what is the evidence he's being left out of the next debate?

2) even if it's true, what evidence is there that the reason is anything other than "he's showing no traction".

[CoffeeCat]

12. O'Malley is campaigning all over the state of Iowa

and his campaign is working hard. He's polling at around 5 percent.

Why not let him participate in this debate?

Bill Richardson garnered 2 percent of the Iowa vote in the 2008 Democratic primary. He was never excluded from a debate. He has less "traction" than O'Malley.

This is bizarre.

[brooklynite]

19. "Martin O'Malley narrowly qualifies for fourth debate"

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/blog/bal-omalley-narrowly-qualifies-for-fourth-debate-20160108-story.html

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley will likely qualify for the next debate -- but just barely.

Criteria announced by NBC News on Friday for its Jan. 17 Democratic debate in Charleston requires qualifying candidates to have at least 5 percent support in the early nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or nationally.

Based on the polls NBC is recognizing, O'Malley sits at exactly 5 percent in Iowa.

An NBC News official with knowledge of the criteria confirmed O'Malley, a two-term Maryland governor, currently qualifies. The official said NBC would likely round O'Malley's total up if subsequent polls lowered his average a few tenths of a percent.

Another conspiracy theory bites the dust.....

[CoffeeCat]

22. So discussing the ins and outs of a news story

that suggested that O'Malley may be excluded from the debates--is now conspiracy?

Here's the original information, disseminated by Politico:
Hadas Gold ‏@Hadas_Gold 17m17 minutes ago
Dem debate criteria announced: must reach an average of 5 % either nationally or in Iowa, NH or SC in 5 recent polls recognized by NBC

Gabriel Debenedetti ‏@gdebenedetti 4m4 minutes ago
Just in: @MartinOMalley is in very serious danger of not making the debate stage on January 17. Story with @POLITICO_Steve coming shortly.

Everyone is relieved that MOM will likely take the stage, but to suggest that discussing this story and the possible reasons why he would be excluded, is a bit silly.

[brooklynite]

23. No...discussing the unfounded hypothesis that he's being "punished" for a policy position is...

[Eric J in MN]

8. No, they're allowed to do forums (take turns being on a stage.)

Update: They may also appear on-stage together to wave to the crowd, but not to answer questions, since then it would count as an unsanctioned debate.

[CoffeeCat]

11. How do you know that O'Malley and Sanders won't appear on stage together

at this forum? I couldn't find any information about that.

It seems contrary. The event is being held at a small church.

And why isn't Hillary attending?

[Eric J in MN]

13. Because if they broke the rules by appearing on-stage together

...while answering questions, then they'd both be banned from the rest of the debates.

The word "forum" in the context of the 2016 contest means taking turns.

Hillary Clinton is skipping most of the forums because she's in the lead, and doesn't want to give more publicity to her rivals.

[CoffeeCat]

15. The event will garner publicity in Iowa

whether or not Hillary attends.

I can understand her wanting to keep unscripted public events/debates at a minimum. She's the one that stands to lose from unexpected gaffes or situations that could erode her tenuous, single-digit lead.

However, you would think that she'd want to get in the ring more, especially in Iowa. The race is tightening there and there is evidence that she's having trouble there. I attended her Des Moines rally last week. She had a rally in the same space/building in 2008--and she didn't have half the crowd that she did in 2008.

I think she's got an enthusiasm problem. Bernie's enthusiasm appears through the roof, with crowds in the 2000+ range.

At this point, being absent from events like this could hurt her.

I'd like to hear from her campaign, why she's not participating. That would be interesting.

[leftofcool]

16. Hillary has a prior engagement.

You think she should break off other engagements just to be on the same stage as the boys?

[CoffeeCat]

18. Oh I'm sure she does

It's just all very interesting!

[Tanuki]

10. They're appearing together? How can this be? We were told endlessly, with all due condescension,

that Howard Dean was lying when he suggested to O'Malley that they could do something like this, and that O'Malley was lying when he replied that he had reached out to Sanders for such an event but had up to that time been rebuffed. One of multiple threads on the subject:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251956493

[Eric J in MN]

14. They're allowed to do forums, which means they aren't simultaneously

...on stage to answer questions.

"Saturday Night Live" had an actress playing Rachel Maddow say: A forum is like a debate, but with no ratings.

[CoffeeCat]

17. Well that's very interesting

I might have to attend this event, to see what the deal is.

Very interesting that Hillary isn't participating in a forum on family issues in a state that has a caucus vote in a few weeks.

[Beacool]

20. Please remove the tin foil from your head and leave the conspiracy theories to the RW.

What you wrote doesn't even make sense. Since when does Hillary run NBC and decides who should be on the debate stage? Do you really think that her campaign sees O'Malley as a threat?

Nonsense.....

[CoffeeCat]

21. I think it's interesting that O'Malley and Sanders

are participating in an Iowa event together that doesn't include Hillary.

The topic is families, family leave and other issues that affect working families. Hillary supposedly cares about these issues and it's worth discussing that she is absent from this type of event, especially in Iowa with the caucuses a few weeks away.

Asking questions and wondering about the nuance between these candidates is valid.

Your and your gaggle tend to feign outrage whenever anyone asks a question or makes a suggestion that you don't like. I mean, this is a political discussion board on the intertubes, correct? This isn't a High Tea at Kensington, no?

[Eric J in MN]

24. O'Malley and Sanders also both did the MoveOn Forum while Clinton didn't. NT

NT