Imagine four more years of unchecked corruption and naked grift. Four more years of broadsides against our democracy, our free press, and the very concept of truth. Four more years of fawning deference to Vladimir Putin abroad — and to the NRA here at home.

That doesn’t have to be our fate. In 28 days, Iowans can say enough, and take the first step toward beating Donald Trump and restoring the soul of our nation.

Restoring our soul means creating policies that reflect our shared values. That means ensuring that health care is a right for all — not just the wealthy — by giving every American the choice to either stick with a private plan or choose an affordable, quality Medicare-like public option. It means revitalizing the basic middle class bargain for all Americans, so that no one has to leave their hometown — be it Manhattan or Mason City, L.A. or Elkader — to find opportunity. It means banning assault weapons and limiting magazine clips, so that every parent can look their kids in the eye and tell them, “You will be safe at school.” Most of all, it means treating every person with dignity.

know how seriously you take your responsibility as caucusgoers, and I believe you’ll choose a candidate who can build a broad, diverse coalition to unify this nation around our common values — someone who understands that our country is made strong by the ideals and dignity of our people.

We don’t have to give in to Donald Trump’s dark, petty, angry vision of America. We can choose to be the more perfect union we have always aspired to be. We can restore the defining American promise — that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. And, in doing so, we can restore the soul of our nation. I hope you’ll join me in that fight today — and that you’ll caucus for me on Feb. 3.

It is not unusual that a presidential incumbent has a campaign advantage in his second election. President Barack Obama’s supporters liked to say, “GM is alive and Osama bin Laden is dead.” To beat an incumbent president, a rare historical occurrence, the challenger’s foreign policy bona fides must be solid, especially when troops are deployed around the world.

That is the considerable advantage that former vice president Joe Biden has in the Democratic primary race against contenders with little foreign policy experience or with irresponsible, extreme views that put off a lot of voters. In New York on Tuesday, Biden delivered remarks seeking to capitalize on that advantage.

“Make no mistake: this outcome of strategic setbacks, heightened threats, chants of “Death to America” once more echoing across the Middle East, Iran and its allies vowing revenge — this was avoidable,” he said. “The seeds of these dangers were planted by Donald Trump himself on May 8, 2018 — the day he tore up the Iran nuclear deal, against the advice of his own top national security advisers.” Biden argued that the trouble started “the day [Trump] turned his back on our closest European allies and decided it was more important to him to destroy any progress made by the Obama-Biden administration than build on it to create a better, safer world.”

Biden’s argument is that careful diplomacy and measured use of force had kept Iran at bay. Now, however, “a president who says he wants to end endless war in the Middle East is bringing us dangerously close to starting a new one,” Biden warned. “A president, who says he wants out of the region, sends more than 18,000 additional troops to deal with a crisis of his own making. And an administration that claims its actions have made Americans safer in the same breath urges them to leave Iraq because of increased danger.”....

If Biden’s aim was to sound like the adult in the room, the one with every ally on speed dial, he largely succeeded. He will benefit in making a clear distinction between himself and candidates who promise to bug out of the Middle East immediately or sound as though they are making excuses for an evil regime. Biden understands that average Americans do not want a war with Iran, but neither do they want to feel as though the terrorists have free reign. Just as in health care — as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) recently learned from her fumble on Medicare-for-all — Democratic candidates who get themselves too far to the left on matters of war and peace risk viability in the general election. Biden — who boasts the biggest lead over Trump in head-to-head matchups, according to the latest Morning Consult poll — seems to understand this. Whether the others do will determine whether their electability argument collapses.

Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign filled less than half of the delegate slots for the four most diverse congressional districts in Illinois, a sign of how his campaign continues to struggle with Black and Latino voters.

Voters in Illinois cast ballots not only for their pick for president, but also for delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Delegates are generally associated with one of the presidential campaigns, meaning each campaign needs to find 101 people willing to serve as a delegate — at least three in each of the state’s 18 congressional districts, with additional delegates in more heavily Democratic districts.

Finding a person to fill each slot — and collecting the 500 signatures necessary to put them on the ballot — is considered an early test of a campaign’s strength in the delegate-rich state, and supporters of Buttigieg’s rivals said his failure to fill the slots points to a potentially fatal weakness with voters of color.

The three leading Democratic candidates in national polling all filled an overwhelming majority of slots. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders filled every available slot, while former Vice President Joe Biden filled all but three slots. Buttigieg, who trails the other three candidates in national polling but is a top contender in the early voting state of Iowa, filled just 53 of the slots. Two lower-profile candidates, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and entrepreneur Andrew Yang, both filled more than 60 slots.

Buttigieg’s missing delegates are concentrated in the state’s most diverse congressional districts, according to an analysis of candidate data files from the Illinois State Board of Elections. Illinois has two majority-Black districts: The 1st, represented by Rep. Bobby Rush, and the 2nd, represented by Rep. Robin Kelly. Buttigieg filled zero of the eight slots in the 1st District, and just four of seven slots in the 2nd District.

The battleground race for a Texas House seat in the Houston suburbs is heating up as a national Democratic group launches TV ads highlighting past allegations that the Republican candidate mistreated his children.

Child Protective Services eventually dropped the case, but the matter has followed businessman Gary Gates through his multiple runs for public office.

It is now surfacing in the Jan. 28 special election runoff to replace former state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, a race that is drawing national attention as Democrats treat it as their first big battle ahead of trying to capture the House majority in November. They are effectively nine seats away from the majority.

In a sharp escalation, the super PAC Forward Majority is set to start airing a commercial Tuesday that raises the accusations from two decades ago that sparked Gates' high-profile crusade against CPS. The 30-second spot zeroes in on a few of the most severe claims that his children made to investigators — such as punishing them with vomit-inducing medicine — and then says Gates “spent a fortune to shield alleged abusers like himself.”....

Forward Majority's spot is based on accusations that CPS staffers made against Gates and his wife, Melissa, after the agency removed the couple's 13 children — 11 adopted — from their Houston-area home in 2000, saying the kids were in "immediate danger." A few days later, a judge sent the children back home — but he was disturbed by the claims, the Houston Press reported at the time, and emphasized he was only seeking to determine whether the "emergency removal was appropriate, not whether these children have been abused."....

The saga began in February 2000 when the Gates' adopted 10-year-old son showed up at school with a bag stapled to his shirt filled with Fig Newton wrappers and a note from his dad explaining that the child, who had an eating disorder, was being punished for hoarding the pastry bars. That caused a school employee to call a CPS hotline, setting off the series of events that led to the removal of the 13 kids from the Gates residence.

Based on investigators' interviews with the kids, CPS later accused the couple of disciplining their children by doing things like making them carry bricks, sit against the wall for long time periods and take "throw-up" medicine — ipecac — for eating food they should not have. Sometimes the disciplining included physical violence, CPS said, which the Gateses have denied.

The battleground race for a Texas House seat in the Houston suburbs is heating up as a national Democratic group launches TV ads highlighting past allegations that the Republican candidate mistreated his children.

Child Protective Services eventually dropped the case, but the matter has followed businessman Gary Gates through his multiple runs for public office.

It is now surfacing in the Jan. 28 special election runoff to replace former state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, a race that is drawing national attention as Democrats treat it as their first big battle ahead of trying to capture the House majority in November. They are effectively nine seats away from the majority.

In a sharp escalation, the super PAC Forward Majority is set to start airing a commercial Tuesday that raises the accusations from two decades ago that sparked Gates' high-profile crusade against CPS. The 30-second spot zeroes in on a few of the most severe claims that his children made to investigators — such as punishing them with vomit-inducing medicine — and then says Gates “spent a fortune to shield alleged abusers like himself.”....

Forward Majority's spot is based on accusations that CPS staffers made against Gates and his wife, Melissa, after the agency removed the couple's 13 children — 11 adopted — from their Houston-area home in 2000, saying the kids were in "immediate danger." A few days later, a judge sent the children back home — but he was disturbed by the claims, the Houston Press reported at the time, and emphasized he was only seeking to determine whether the "emergency removal was appropriate, not whether these children have been abused."....

The saga began in February 2000 when the Gates' adopted 10-year-old son showed up at school with a bag stapled to his shirt filled with Fig Newton wrappers and a note from his dad explaining that the child, who had an eating disorder, was being punished for hoarding the pastry bars. That caused a school employee to call a CPS hotline, setting off the series of events that led to the removal of the 13 kids from the Gates residence.

Based on investigators' interviews with the kids, CPS later accused the couple of disciplining their children by doing things like making them carry bricks, sit against the wall for long time periods and take "throw-up" medicine — ipecac — for eating food they should not have. Sometimes the disciplining included physical violence, CPS said, which the Gateses have denied.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is running a general election campaign during the Democratic primary.
While other presidential candidates are running campaigns tailored to the Democratic base, Biden's message, for the most part, is targeting centrists and independents, a move typically reserved for the general election.

While the strategy can be risky for primary candidates, Democrats say the strategy works well for Biden. He is currently well-ahead of his competitors.

“Biden’s strength has always been to fuse pragmatism and progressivism,” said former Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who has said that the former vice president has the best chance among all the Democratic candidates of defeating President Trump later this year.

“And the polling is pretty consistent that most Democrats want a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump and reflect their core values at the same time. Biden is trying to dominate that lane.”

A survey from Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll out on Friday showed Biden receiving the support of 30 percent of Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has drawn support from progressives, came in a distant second with 17 percent.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has picked up a crowd of new endorsements in California — including five former backers of Sen. Kamala Harris, POLITICO has learned. “These new supporters represent the growing momentum for Joe Biden across the country as we approach Super Tuesday,’’ Jessica Mejía, California state director of Biden’s campaign, said in an email statement to POLITICO. ”Voters around the state know Joe’s track record of delivering for California families … and moving our country forward from Trump’s failed presidency.”

Among Biden’s new California backers: State Sens. Bill Dodd, Cathleen Galgiani and Anthony Portantino; Assembly members Ken Cooley and Al Muratsuchi; Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacy; Art Torres, former state senator and former chair of the California Democratic Party; LA Community College District Board of Trustees president Andra Hoffman; Neysa Fligor, Los Altos City vice mayor; Maria Morales, El Monte City Council member; Denise Menchaca, San Gabriel City Council member; and Robert Gin, Alhambra Unified School District board member.