Martin O'Malley can work a room, they say: Whether it's an expansive hotel ballroom with several hundred in attendance or a dimly lit restaurant and bar over pizza.

He's careful and precise in his articulation of speech and "someone you can believe in."

He packs the executive leadership often craved by presidential voters: eight years at the helm of Maryland government and before that as mayor of Baltimore, where, supporters say, he reversed the Eastern industrial city's decline.

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Then there's his dashing smile, an appetite for tech (he's an avid user of Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter), and youthful age.

Oh, and he's made trips to Iowa a top priority, something that presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton hasn't.