What they say about sharks – they can smell blood in the water – goes double for politicians, which explains the emergence of former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor Martin O’Malley as a potential alternative to Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, it will be recalled, is in hot water owing to revelations of improper and possibly unlawful use of personal computers to conduct official business while secretary of state.  The prospects of such incredibly careless shenanigans in a Clinton White House must have computer hackers champing at the bit – our own, Russian, Chinese, etc.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week this past Sunday, O’Malley unloaded on both Clinton and the GOP frontrunner, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, son of our 41^st president and brother of our 43^rd:

The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families. … I think that our country always benefits from new leadership and new perspectives. We need a president who's on our side, a president who's willing to take on powerful, wealthy special interests to restore the economy.

Yeah, right – the huge debt Barack Obama accumulated over the past six years is the fault of “powerful, wealthy special interests.”  Yeah, right – there’s won’t be any “crony capitalism” in an O’Malley administration.  If you think Obama’s debt levels are obscene, wait until “Owe Malley” – a nickname he earned as the tax-and-spend governor of Maryland – gets his hands on the national treasury.

Asked what he considered top threats to our national security, O’Malley offered:

Uh, the greatest danger that we face right now on a consistent basis in terms of man-made threats, is uh, is uh, nuclear Iran and related to that, uh, extremist violence. I don't think you can separate the two.

Uh, yeah, Marty, Iran is to blame for “extremist violence.”  How about linking “extremist violence” to, uh, the sort of regime Iran is?  The country’s official name is, uh, the Islamic Republic of Iran, right, Marty?  There’s a connection between, uh, Islam and “extremist violence,” or is that too much for you to, uh, admit?  Or are you going to tell us that ISIS thugs are, uh, freedom-fighters?  Inquiring minds want to, uh, know.

With the likes of O’Malley and/or Elizabeth Warren potentially replacing Hillary Clinton on the Democrat ticket, the pressures will be significant on the GOP to come up with a slate that represents a genuine alternative.  Republicans shouldn’t run a “crown prince” or, for that matter, someone who can convincingly be accused of representing “powerful, wealthy special interests.”  It’s a sure bet that Democrats and their MSM enablers will be flinging plenty of mud even at a GOP candidate without such baggage.  

On the other hand, if Hillary Clinton manages to survive her current travails, a young, unencumbered, and articulate Republican could make effective use of the “Empress Clinton” narrative against her.  Besides, the royal mess King Barack the First will have left behind by 2016, at home and abroad, should persuade enough voters to stay away from another “historic” experiment.