This is really bad news for O'Malley.
Read it here.
O'Malley gets some praise for working with a difficult situation in Baltimore but is criticized for spending too much time on Baltimore (where he is mayor, after all) and not enough time addressing the Washington suburbs and their infrastructure issues. They apparently failed to notice that the current administration is pushing an unworkable system of bus transit for the Purple Line that will do nothing to alleviate traffic in Montgomery or Prince George's Counties.
The most curious passage in the endorsement, where the Post thinks it's hedging its bets but is really engaging in some seriously wishful thinking, reads:
"There have been disappointments and dithering during Mr. Ehrlich's term as well, mostly of his own making. Relishing battle and cherishing his status as a besieged underdog, he picked fights needlessly, as in the childish blacklisting of two journalists from the Baltimore Sun. Likewise, his tiresome quarrels with the leaders of the General Assembly look more like clashes of puffed-up egos than hard legislative bargaining. Mr. Ehrlich could be a more effective governor if he applied himself more to the mechanics of governing and less to the skewering of his enemies on talk radio."
Fat chance of that. Bobby E cut his teeth as a foot solider for Newt Gingrich in the House for 6 years, and that's probably where he learned to go out of his way to pick fights. His default answer to everything, when he's not turning on the charm (and he does have considerable personal charm) is to go on talk radio and denounce anyone who has any difference with him. His administration has brought Capitol Hill-type nastiness to Annapolis big time.
Lest we forget, Ehrlich has been shamed by the looming spectre of facing re-election numerous times in the last year or so - shamed out of vetoing the stem cell research legislation he's now claiming credit for in his ads; shamed out of a big sell-off of conservation land to a connected crony; shamed out of trying to push through the sweetheart deal regarding utility rates concocted by his hand-picked PSC full of corporate lackeys. What does he do if he doesn't have to worry about those things?
What positive things Ehrlich has accomplished have been done out of short-term fear of facing Maryland voters again. He has commercials that attempt to make him appear more moderate than he really is, and then has another set of them that engage in simplistic Baltimore-bashing, which sadly will work with a lot of people who don't know how far Baltimore and it's legendarily unresponsive bureaucracy has truly come in the last few years with O'Malley at the helm. Ehrlich is so shameless he's even simultaneously attacking Baltimore for not doing enough about its crime problem and being overzealous in arresting suspects.
Anyhow, this endorsement will really make O'Malley's job harder in swing areas of Washington commuters who don't know much about Baltimore. I had doubts about O'Malley's ability to transcend voter's reflexive fear of all things Baltimore City, and they've only been amplified now that the editorial board of the Post can't see past it - or Bobby Haircut's carefully crafted and false image as a moderate - either.