Morning Read: O'Malley's Speech Gets Mixed Reviews

Gov. Martin O’Malley has been one of the most active surrogates for President Obama this election. But during his primetime speech Tuesday at the DNC—perhaps his biggest public audition yet for 2016—O’Malley’s speech fell short in substance, drawing mixed reviews from viewers.

HuffPost Media tweeted that the governor was getting bad reviews from MSNBC, referring to Republican strategist Steve Schmidt’s snarky comment that he saw a future of Health and Human Service secretary in O’Malley.

O’Malley’s speech was high energy, call n’ response style, and in it he attacked Mitt Romney (“Swiss bank accounts never created American jobs.") and lauded the president’s record (“forward, not back."). While O’Malley didn’t get all bad reviews, many thought it was a shame that he followed Massachusetts’s Gov. Deval Patrick, whose speech was undoubtedly one of the standouts of the night. (Though perhaps not fully factual, at least according to Dylan Matthews at the Washington Post.)

Bruce Handy of Vanity Fair tweeted: "Whose idea was it to put Martin O'Malley on after Deval Patrick? “Swiss bank accounts never built a bridge?' Even I'm groaning."

The Washington Examiner wrote:

Democrats had hoped for the Maryland governor to make an articulate assault on the Republican ticket ahead of a kinder, gentler speech by first lady Michelle Obama.

But O'Malley's stilted delivery and clumsy turns of speech drew some harsh criticism from some left-leaning observers.

"10 more minutes of O'Malley and I'll vote for Romney," tweeted Peter Beinart, former editor of the New Republic.

According to NBC’s Baltimore affiliate, however, some found O’Malley’s speech clear and effective.

"I give him a B+, maybe even an A-," said Matthew Crenson, a political analyst and professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins University. "Compared to 2004, this is a big improvement, and you have to give him credit for the improvement. It wasn't just a well-delivered speech. The content was effective."

Red Maryland wrote that O’Malley’s record was missing from his speech.

And the Baltimore Sun’s David Zurawik said that in televisual terms, Martin O’Malley’s convention speech doesn't quite make it.

Missed the speech? Watch it here to judge for yourself.

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