Standing with Martin O'Malley (maybe)

By Richard K. Barry

But let's get a better campaign photo

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) is saying she expects Hillary Clinton to get a challenger or three and is working on setting up primary debates accordingly.

As reported by The Hill, Wasserman Shultz says that "party officials were thus mapping out a “series of sanctioned debates that we expect our presidential candidates to participate in."

The DNC chairwoman mentioned Vice President Biden, former Gov. Martin O’Malley (Md.), former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.) and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chaffee as other likely contenders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), she added, would be a welcome entrant provided he switched party affiliations for the primary.

Although I would be surprised if Biden gets in, and Wassserman Schultz probably had to add his name to be polite, the others could all well run. 

As for myself, I'm getting interested in O'Malley.

Speaking at Harvard University on Thursday night, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley cranked up the pressure on Hillary Clinton by calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage and voicing his opposition to President Barack Obama’s massive trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership.

"As we gather here tonight," he said, "wealth and economic power in the United States of America have now been concentrated in the hands of the very few as almost never before in the history of our country."

During her first week in the presidential campaign, Clinton has tried to win over progressives in the Democratic Party by attacking CEOs for not paying their workers enough and saying that gay marriage should be a constitutional right. But both the minimum wage and trade pose an early test of Clinton's progressive credentials. Her positions on those issues will offer a clear indicator where she stands in the Democratic Party—and what her potential presidency could look like.

Run, Martin, Run.