Hillary Clinton's would-be challengers step up

This article is the 12th in the White House Wednesday series by The World and Everything in It looking at potential 2016 candidates for president. Earlier installments profiled Republicans Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, and Mitt Romney, and Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, and Andrew Cuomo. This week features three possible contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Clinton family and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley go back at least as far as 2008, when O’Malley backed Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. Former President Bill Clinton then rallied supporters for O’Malley in Baltimore ahead of the governor’s 2010 reelection bid.

Given their past alliances, Fusion TV’s Jorge Ramos last month asked O’Malley if he would once again back Hillary Clinton for president. But this time, O’Malley had a different candidate in mind: himself.

“I am seriously considering running in 2016,” he said. And O’Malley is traveling to all the places presidential hopefuls visit when preparing a White House bid. Just a couple of weeks ago, the governor was back in New Hampshire for the fourth time this year.

The former Baltimore mayor launched his first successful gubernatorial bid in 2006. And since assuming office, the reliably liberal O’Malley has burnished his progressive credentials, including expanding collective bargaining rights in Maryland, passing new gun control measures, and allowing same-sex couples to get marriage licenses. The governor is nearing the end of his second term in office, and term limits in Maryland ensure he’ll be out of a job just in time for the start of the presidential primary season.

Meanwhile, at a National Press Club event in the nation’s capital last month, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb said he was considering running for president. Webb served in the Marines and is a decorated Vietnam War combat veteran. The Democrat worked for the Reagan administration for four years, including two as secretary of the Navy.

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, narrowly defeating GOP incumbent George Allen. Two years later, at a Virginia campaign event, he introduced his party’s presidential nominee, then-Sen. Barack Obama. He praised Obama as a great leader who had stood strong in the face of sometimes withering campaign attacks, but on NBC’s Meet the Press this week, the former state lawmaker appeared no longer impressed by the president’s leadership. Without expressly criticizing the president, he noted the economic hardship many Americans have endured over the past six years. Without overtly criticizing the president or former Secretary of State Clinton, Webb added, “We have not had a clear articulation of what American foreign policy is basically since the end of the Cold War. … In terms of a clear doctrine, we have been lacking that for a very long time.”

Some see Webb’s effort to distance himself from an unpopular president as further evidence he is planning on a White House run.

But there is one more potential Democratic 2016 candidate who is still in Washington and would provide a stark contrast to Webb’scentristappeal. Most progressive politicians don’t like the word “socialism,” but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is a self-proclaimed, Democratic socialist.

Officially, Sanders is an independent, but he caucuses with the Democrats and leans unquestionably well to the left on every major issue. Sanders says Obamacare is good, but it’s just the first step toward socialized medicine. And there isn’t a more vocal opponent to spending cuts in Washington.

Sanders has a passionate following among liberal activists, but before committing to a presidential campaign, he will have to decide whether he has a broad enough base of support among Democrats.