Watch Martin O’Malley Sing the “Iowa Waltz”

Maybe he’d do better on “The Voice.”

Martin O'Malley might have a second career option if this whole presidential run thing doesn't work out.Patrick Caldwell/Mother Jones

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After a rally for Martin O’Malley, the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, at Grinnell College on Wednesday evening, first-year students Wyatt Heritage and Harley Boatsman lingered around hoping they could coax a musical performance out of the former Maryland governor, a rock-and-roller who has often played in public. Though the two students plan to caucus for Sen. Bernie Sanders next week—”I support pretty much all of his social plans,” Heritage says—both students like O’Malley and wanted to catch a video of him plucking the guitar. By the time the pair worked their way through the crowd to O’Malley, the candidate’s staffers were anxiously telling him that he needed to head out to his next event. But with the days of his campaign likely nearing an end—he’s polling at 4 percent in Iowa—O’Malley couldn’t help himself. He grabbed the guitar they had brought and led the remaining crowd through a folksy Iowa-themed tune. Here it is:

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This is the rubber-meets-road moment: the early days in our first fundraising drive since we took a big swing and merged with CIR to bring fearless investigative reporting to the internet, radio, video, and everywhere else that people need an antidote to lies and propaganda.

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