Martin O'Malley

Because of President Obama's choices, we were able to avoid a second Great Depression. But-- work remains when 70% of us are earning the same or less than we were 12 years ago. So I guess I differ, I would say, from President Obama in my background and-- and my experience. His was that of a legislator. Mine was of a big city, and also facing difficult challenges, and also of a state-- that we had to lead through the recession. And that's-- that's a big difference with his experience.

For all of the progress that we make, there's always so much more that needs to be done. I would not have been elected with 91% of the vote first time or reelected four years later with 88% of the vote if we were not making substantial progress. When I was elected in 1999, George, our city had become the most violent, and addicted, and abandoned city in America. It was a huge challenge. But we went on in the next ten years to achieve the biggest reduction of part one crime of any city in America. And now, the city's population is growing again with greater numbers of young people moving back here than before. But it's also true that we have huge pockets of poverty in our city and in other cities in the United States. And the anger-- that erupted in our city-- happened in some of the poorest, hardest hit neighborhoods where unemployment's actually higher now than it was seven years ago. I'd be angry to. The poet once wrote that the unemployment in our bones erupts in our hands and stones. We can do better as a country. And we can't leave behind so many that are underemployed, or unemployed, or earning less than they were 12 years ago.