O’Malley Touting Failure as Success

Governor O’Malley is fudging the truth on his campaign site and fund-raising appeals claiming Governing Magazine named him “Governor of the Year.” The magazine didn’t name him governor of the year. It named him one of eight “Public Officials of the Year” for 2009. But then again we already know O’Malley likes to fudge things, then—naturally—blame others for his problems.

O’Malley’s flexible standards of truth aside, the laughable part of Governing Magazine’s selection of O’Malley for State Stat and “specifically for his work on measuring government performance.” Of course, as we’ve noted, in reality State Stat falls far short of O’Malley’s used-car salesman promise to provide Marylanders with “open, transparent, and timely information and data on state government agencies.” In fact, O’Malley’s administration is refusing to implement the state’s transparency law.

Call me crazy, but touting a failure on your own website isn’t the best campaign strategy.

I’m not sure what kind of Douchewellian™ alchemy goes into that formulation, but it’s kind of like promising to lower electricity rates, then doing everything in your power to raise them.