O'Malley and Iowa

[Ebsy]

As we all know, the Iowa Democratic Caucuses have a "viability" floor where if a candidate gets under 15% of the vote in a precinct, their caucus-goers have to change sides or people have to go to their banner to make them viable. In most precincts, neither Clinton nor Sanders will probably have difficulty meeting the 15% threshold, but Martin O'Malley, unless he gets a significant bump in the polls, will probably fall short in precincts all over Iowa. I've heard a bit from Clinton staffers about the complicated calculus of caucus night, which few people seem to understand, but the goal is to basically ensure the runner-up (for them, hopefully Bernie) gets the fewest delegates.

With that in mind, how do you guys think O'Malley's frightened and few supporters will factor into this? I'm hesitant to label them anti-Clinton, since if they were, you would think they would already be in the Sanders camp.

[Mr. Morden]

The big question is whether O'Malley himself gives any marching orders to his supporters in the precincts where he doesn't meet viability.  We've seen candidates cut deals in the past (e.g., Edwards and Kucinich in 2004, Obama and Richardson in 2008).

[Bakersfield Uber Alles]

With that in mind, how do you guys think O'Malley's frightened and few supporters will factor into this? I'm hesitant to label them anti-Clinton, since if they were, you would think they would already be in the Sanders camp.

I would classify O'Malley supporters as being anti-Clinton. O'Malley's positions are closer to Clinton's (especially in terms of presentation) than to Sanders's. I'm not quite sure which way the O'Malley voters would go in the event that they had to pick between the top two. If they don't like how far left Sanders is, what other reason than not liking Hillary, would they have for supporting O'Malley?