O'Malley questions Sanders' support for Obama.

'Martin O'Malley took aim at his rivals Friday, continuing a pattern of more direct contrasts that he's used on the campaign trail in recent days.

The former Maryland governor accused U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of turning his back on the Obama administration ahead of the president's 2012 re-election campaign by encouraging a primary contest. Sanders, a Vermont independent, told New York public radio station WNYC in 2011 that having a Democrat challenge Obama on the left would "enliven the debate."

But O'Malley said he stands behind Obama, specifically pointing out the president's work on job growth and the economy.

"A lot of us like Barack Obama," O'Malley said during a stop at a local United Food and Commercial Workers union hall. "In fact, when Sen. Sanders was trying to get somebody to primary Barack Obama four years ago, I was stepping up and working very hard for his re-election."

This rhetoric from O'Malley on Sanders — who's fiery style has made him the top competitor to frontrunner Hillary Clinton — is not completely unfamiliar. O'Malley told a Washington Post reporter in July that Sanders is a "protest candidate." On Thursday, he told The Des Moines Register's editorial board that Sanders is the "lightening rod" that progressive voters are using to send a message to establishment Democratic Party leaders.

O'Malley suggested to the Denison crowd that he's the more even-keeled candidate that voters will eventually get behind.

"In both parties in our search for a new leader, people gravitated toward the lightening rods of discontent," he said. "But once we're done with our anger, fear and discontent, we've got to nominate a person who will lead us forward as president."

The Sanders campaign offered this response Friday night: "Bernie Sanders has been a strong supporter of Barack Obama and considers him a friend. In 2006, then-Sen. Obama campaigned for Bernie's senate campaign in Vermont. Two years later, Bernie supported Obama in his campaign for the presidency. Gov. O'Malley did not."

O'Malley supported Clinton in her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination.'

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2015/10/30/omalley-questions-sanders-support-obama/74893980/