President
Bloomberg: Mike Bloomberg is opening offices in Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Detroit, but supposedly they’re not directly campaign offices for his presidential bid. According to to him, they’re th nexus of the anti-Trump campaign that he’s been promising for months now, since long before he jumped into the presidential race.
Mayor Pete: Despite the charismatic Midwestern mayor’s meteoric rise, one thing is clear: black people don’t like Pete Buttigieg, almost to a man. It would be really interesting to know if the South Bend black community has a longstanding dislike of him (which is what this seems to stem from), or if this is just very well-crafted meme in black Democratic circles around the country. Either way, it’s almost certainly his biggest stumbling block to the nomination. Come to think of it, it’s kind of crazy that he’s gotten this far.
Trump: The newest CNN/SSRS poll is a big improvement for the president over the last one. In it, he closes the gap between himself and the top four Democratic hopefuls by between four and seven points, depending on the opponent. However, remember as always that margin is really less important than how close a given candidate is to 50% (unless they are above it). In this hyper-partisan world, candidates can make big strides in polling numbers by the solidifying of the base as an election nears, which is what Trump is doing. Still, it would have been concerning for the president if this didn’t happen.
Warren: Apparently, Warren has switched rally styles completely in Iowa, going from long speeches with only a few questions to shorter speeches with a lot of questions at the end. This is probably a bit better for optics, but it’s pretty weak-tea as far as a caucus-winning strategy goes….