Martin O’Malley now knows the sound of one hand clapping.
Defying a terrible winter storm in Iowa that caused other presidential candidates to cancel their appearances, O’Malley showed up at one of his rallies only to find one lone attendee who braved the storm.
Unfortunately for O’Malley, the bearded attendee, apparently named “Kenneth,” told him he appreciated O’Malley’s persistence, but still wouldn’t commit to supporting him. O’Malley sheepishly told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “The very last event of the night, we actually had a whopping total of one person show up, but by God, he was glad to see me. So we spent the time with him.”
“Kenneth,” speaking to MSNBC, said of O’Malley that he was “working on him” but argued that Iowans “want to see the whole campaign play out” before they commit to supporting any candidate.
O’Malley stated, “So I wasn’t surprised that he was uncommitted. But I was glad he took the time to come out in the snow to see me. We almost canceled that last event but we were out there anyway, so we plowed through.”
Sarah Beckman, a reporter at the event, quoted “Kenneth” saying to O’Malley:
I think you have a great platform to be running, and I think you have a great future here in Iowa. I wish you well. On paper, if I were to look at just the resumes, you would have the strongest resume in my mind. But then all this other stuff…I think those two other candidates, there are problems with both of them. I don’t think Sanders would be easily electable. So don’t underestimate the fact that Iowa will turn out differently. I think it will turn out differently than what the polls are showing. Jimmy Carter would not have been president if it weren’t for Iowa.
O’Malley is trailing Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Iowa by triple digits; his poll numbers remain in single digits.