Politico's exuberant headline — "IT'S ON! Hillary Clinton rival ramps up in Iowa" — travels from the sublime, to the questionable, to the less questionable, and finally lands with a thud of the utterly incongruous:
[The sublime] The first rustlings of a Martin O’Malley presidential campaign can be heard faintly in Iowa.
[The questionable] Surrogates for the former Maryland governor … have begun talking up O’Malley and scheduling meetings with officials and activists.
[The less questionable] Many observers believe O’Malley is hoping to use a presidential run to raise his profile and secure a spot as Clinton’s running mate or a cabinet secretary.
[The utterly incongruous] The former governor currently has no plans to travel to Iowa…. [H]e will appear March 7 at a Democratic event in Topeka, Kansas. [A spokeswoman] said no one is working on his behalf in New Hampshire.
From ramping up to no Iowa visits scheduled, all of which sandwiches the "Its On!" story's only believable entry: that O'Malley is running for veep.