Two weeks until Iowa, the race has narrowed. One of these people could beat Trump, right? gdebenedetti reports on the caucus's unprecedented four-way deadlock
Photo: Mark Ostow This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly.
And that’s just the voters who have preferences. The four leaders combined for just 68 percent of the vote in the most recent Des Moines Register poll, and fewer than one-third of respondents to the latest CBS News survey reported being “definitely” committed to their chosen candidate.
To some in Sanders’s camp, the timing was fishy: Why would Warren have kept quiet for more than a year, praising Sanders the whole time, some of the senator’s top aides grumbled, if she believed him to hold this view, only for it to come out right before the Des Moines debate? But Warren’s team, unsure how to respond at first, appeared genuinely caught off guard by the development, unamused to have the senator’s closing argument to Iowa voters be clouded by an ugly fight with Sanders.
None of the traditional gatekeepers in the state quite know what to think of the confidence of the Sanders campaign, either. They seldom see Sanders’s team wooing the usual power brokers and figured Sanders would be far less of a factor after he reshaped the upper levels of his stuttering Iowa operation this fall . Then there was his heart attack, and the concerns he’s just too far left and just too old.
This, according to nearly a dozen campaign insiders, is what the Biden brain trust in Wilmington and Washington, and at the campaign’s Philadelphia headquarters, sees as its silver bullet nationwide, and its reason to be confident that the very high number of undecided voters, including Iowans, will ultimately break its way. “If you look at the number of people who are willing to change their mind, or willing to consider another candidate, it is really remarkable,” Kavanaugh told me.
Now, though, to the extent that Biden’s staff worries about anything, it’s that a rougher-than-expected start in Iowa could expose the 77-year-old gaffe machine to yet another political storm, this time in the form of his own party finally zeroing in on his ability to actually win.
Still, her main Iowa bet is one she placed over a year ago, when she made her first hires there: her massive on-the-ground organizing apparatus in the state. The operation has been the envy of all her rivals for months, even when she fell behind them in the polls late last year — and the reason none of them ever thought she was really out of the race.
The office’s back wall is plastered with dozens of the campaign’s commit-to-caucus cards — meaning identical printed copies of the candidate’s headshot are staring out into the room — and the wall next to it features a painted reminder of the ten “Rules of the Road” that Buttigieg expects his supporters, having made it this far, to follow: respect, belonging, truth, teamwork, boldness, responsibility, substance, discipline, excellence, and joy.
Of course, Obama had opportunities to gain ground in South Carolina that Buttigieg lacks. Which is one reason why a clear loss in Iowa would suggest a very different path for him, and, in the most recent Register poll, Buttigieg dropped nine points — from a clear lead to, basically, a tie with the other three prime contenders.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
There's a 50% chance the US-China 'phase one' deal could fall apart in one yearBusinesses are not convinced the U.S.-China 'phase one' trade deal could hold for long, said Richard Martin, managing director at IMA Asia.
Read more »
Stuck in Washington, 2020 Democratic senators send family, AOC to barnstorm IowaBernie Sanders scrapped Iowa campaign appearances, Amy Klobuchar sent campaign r...
Read more »
Eric Adams’s ‘Go Back to Iowa’ Is Intolerant — and IncoherentThe Brooklyn borough president implies that you’re not a New Yorker if you shop at chain stores. Tell it to the customers at your local Duane Reade.
Read more »
The Note: New squabbles further muddle run-up to IowaTHE NOTE: A mild campaign is heading for an unpredictable finish—with an opponent looming on the other side who is anything but mild and definitely unpredictable.
Read more »
Leaning in: Elizabeth Warren makes a pitch to women in the Iowa home stretchThrough most of the campaign year, Elizabeth Warren’s message has been built mostly around class, not gender. But starting in the run-up to last week’s televised debate in Iowa, she has increasingly pressed a gender-focused message.
Read more »