Populist Reform of the Democratic Party

I'm not sure what this means, and note this speech occurred in 2011. He still did what he did, as governor, and said this, among other things:

Our Greatest Challenges Are Political

Our greatest challenges, I submit to you, are therefore not financial, nor are they technological. Our greatest challenges are political. Our greatest challenges are political.

To move forward, we have to ask ourselves whether we still have the ability as a nation to govern ourselves, to build that next chapter of this tremendous public-private partnership that built railroads and moon shots and everything else. You want to talk about clean energy, as a moral and historical imperative, combine the technology of the moon shot with the securing of this world for individual freedom and democracy of the Second World War, along with the vision and the investment of the transcontinental railroads and other great endeavors, and they’re all here in this one endeavor. . .

But a modern economy requires modern investments if it’s going to achieve the balance necessary to create jobs.

Maryland & Clean Energy

In this spirit, let me share with you some of the things that we are doing in Maryland.

In Baltimore County, thanks to President Obama’s help, we were able to create about 800 jobs building the next generation of green electric motors. And that tremendous turnaround, the public-private partnership that has led to the turnaround of GM, advanced manufacturing, happening here in our country, building the next generation of electric drive motors not in Mexico, but here in Maryland. By the way, they’re housing them in a plant that is powered largely by solar.

In another example, through a tax incentive initiative we call the Sustainable Communities Tax Credit, we’re using the tax code to help local governments team with businesses on green buildings and creating jobs in the process.

We were the first State to adopt the International Green Construction Code. We’ve also passed reforms that require all new public buildings in our State to earn LEED Silver Certification – that is our schools, our colleges, universities and the like. We’ve worked with the U.S. Green Building Council on these priorities, recognizing that they’re good for jobs, good for business, and, yes, good for sustainable energy and the future climate and oxygen of this planet.

We’re working across sectors to advance solar energy in Maryland. We have a combination of new policy choices, including stacked State, local and Federal credits, direct investment and a specific carve-out for solar energy, as part of our renewable energy portfolio. We’ve also been able to create a significant number of new jobs in our State. Our people in economic development say that there are about 1,200 jobs now in solar in our State, where just a few years ago in 2006 you’d barely find that industry registering anywhere in our State.


P.S., I like him, he was my governor, I also like VP Biden and Elizabeth Warren. I like Hillary less than the others, for POTUS, but would surely vote for her.