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“The real state of the union: a nation divided by an angry, out of control president. A White House beset by lies, chaos and corruption. An administration that has failed the American people. It doesn’t have to be this way. Next year we can have a leader who brings people together, solves problems and gets results. Mike Bloomberg will get it done.”
— Michael Bloomberg’s new ad tied to tonight’s State of the Union address
49%
A new Gallup poll finds President Trump’s job approval rating has risen to 49%, his highest since he took office. The new poll finds 50% of Americans disapproving of Trump, leaving just 1% expressing no opinion.
“These are probably the most prepared we’ve ever been as a party for these caucuses. We’ve run through a few different scenarios, but I can tell you, we’re ready.”
— Iowa Democratic party chair Troy Price, interviewed yesterday by CBS News.
“Maybe there will eventually be a decent-sized Iowa bounce despite all of this. But there’s a good chance that the candidates who did well in Iowa get screwed, and the candidates who did poorly there get a mulligan. To repeat: There’s very little importance in a mathematical sense to who wins 41 delegates. Iowa is all about the media narrative it produces and all about momentum, and that momentum, whoever wins, is likely to have been blunted.”
“This fiasco means the end of the caucuses as a significant American political event. The rest of the country was already losing patience with Iowa anyway and this cooks Iowa’s goose. Frankly, it should, The real winner tonight was Donald Trump, who got to watch his opponents wallow in a mess. A lot of good Democratic candidates and people who fought their hearts out here for … nothing.”
— David Yepsen quoted by Politico
60th and 62nd
The two political ads that aired during the Super Bowl broadcast, from the campaigns of Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump, finished 60th and 62nd out of 62 commercials, respectively, in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter, which ranks Super Bowl ads by consumer rating with voters giving each ad a score from 1 to 10.
19%
A new Focus on Rural America poll in Iowa finds Pete Buttigieg leading the Democratic presidential race with 19%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 17%, Elizabeth Warren at 15%, Joe Biden at 15% and Amy Klobuchar at 11%. “Our biggest takeaway… The top four candidates are in a virtual dead heat, and Klobuchar isn’t that far off. That means precinct by precinct delegate counts and realignments are going to make this a nail-biter to the very end.”
“Bernie has said this, I absolutely believe this: whoever gets the nomination, we have to rally behind them, no matter who it is. And I would hope that everybody would do so if Bernie is the nominee as well.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), in an interview with Time.
$200 million
“Michael Bloomberg put about $200 million of his own money into his presidential campaign in its first five weeks, roughly the same amount as the rest of the Democratic field had spent in the third quarter,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
20%
“U.S. farm bankruptcy rates jumped 20% in 2019 – to an eight-year high – as financial woes in the U.S. agricultural economy continued in spite of massive federal bail-out funding,” Reuters reports.