It’s just a two-point Dem race in Iowa
A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll shows a tight race between Sanders and Clinton, with Clinton up just 42 percent to 40 percent. Msnbc.com's Benjy Sarlin offers a curtain raiser on tonight's GOP debate in Charleston. It's going to get nasty. The New York Times previews the clashes to expect tonight, and the AP lays out the stakes.
The Washington Post writes on how Nikki Haley's Republican response to the State of the Union laid bare the deep divides in the GOP.
NBC's Leigh Ann Caldwell writes that many top GOP donors are still on the sidelines as the caucuses loom.
CRUZ: The big story last night, from the New York Times: "A review of personal financial disclosures that Mr. Cruz filed later with the Senate does not find a liquidation of assets that would have accounted for all the money he spent on his campaign. What it does show, however, is that in the first half of 2012, Ted and Heidi Cruz obtained the low-interest loan from Goldman Sachs, as well as another one from Citibank. The loans totaled as much as $750,000 and eventually increased to a maximum of $1 million before being paid down later that year. There is no explanation of their purpose. Neither loan appears in reports the Ted Cruz for Senate Committee filed with the Federal Election Commission, in which candidates are required to disclose the source of money they borrow to finance their campaigns."
Cruz responded last night, calling the issue a "filing error." NBC's Vaughn Hillyard has the details.
He got the endorsement of Phil Robertson from Duck Dynasty.
POLITICO delves into his move to finally take on Donald Trump. BUSH: He's up with a new ad clipping his "Donald Trump is a jerk" comment.
CLINTON: The AP draws the parallel we've all been thinking about: Is 2016 starting to look like 2008 for Clinton?
RUBIO: George WIll is not a fan, writing of his "record of bad judgment" in an op-ed.
The Washington Post sums up how Nikki Haley complicated his campaign by saying yesterday that Rubio "believes in amnesty" before walking the comment back.
CNN headline: "Marco Rubio's immigration negotiator prompted conflict-of-interest concerns"
SANDERS: His campaign says he's raised $1.4 million since Clinton began attacking him.
Alex Seitz-Wald tries to make sense of the Democratic fight over health care.
The Nation endorsed Sanders, writing " This magazine rarely makes endorsements in the Democratic primary (we’ve done so only twice: for Jesse Jackson in 1988, and for Barack Obama in 2008). We do so now impelled by the awareness that our rigged system works for the few and not for the many. Americans are waking up to this reality, and they are demanding change."
TRUMP: He says he's "very angry" over Nikki Haley's SOTU response, Ali Vitali reports.
PROGRAMMING NOTES
*** Thursday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: Andrea Mitchell interviews at 12p ET - Republican Presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul on his decision to boycott the Republican debate tonight, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford, and John Hope Bryant from Operation Hope on the organization’s annual meeting which will feature speakers including Chelsea Clinton.