“House Democrats will be briefed Thursday by the Democratic National Committee on the power of superdelegates — who could play a decisive role if the presidential primary enters a contested convention with no clear nominee in July,” Politico reports.

“Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her caucus about the upcoming briefing on Wednesday as lawmakers returned to the Capitol for their first gathering after a nearly two-week recess.”

FiveThiryEight currently forecasts a 44% chance of a contested convention.

James Hohmann: “Sanders weathered the heavily anticipated, two-hour barrage of attacks from his six opponents by sticking relentlessly to the populist message that got him here. At several key moments, he offered a master class in deflection. On one hand, this can be viewed as impressive message discipline from a candidate who has successfully claimed the mantle of an insurgent outsider. On the other, it could be described as sloganeering and the oversimplifying of complex issues by someone who has served in Congress since 1991.”

“Either way, the debate served as a reminder that Sanders, despite his unconventional candidacy, is more pragmatic than popularly understood.”

A new Clemson University poll in South Carolina shows Joe Biden leading the Democratic primary with 35%, followed by Tom Steyer at 17%, Bernie Sanders at 13%, Elizabeth Warren at 8%, Pete Buttigieg at 8% and Amy Klobuchar at 4%.

“The takeaway is Elizabeth Warren hates Michael Bloomberg more than she wants to win. I think she doesn’t want to attack Bernie because she’s scared she’ll get primaries in 2024. Her attacks on Bloomberg probably help her raise money, maybe she genuinely dislikes him, but it wasn’t intended to get her any more votes. It was maybe to stay alive a little bit longer.”

— James Carville, discussing last night’s debate on MSNBC.

Thomas Friedman: “If this election turns out to be just between a self-proclaimed socialist and an undiagnosed sociopath, we will be in a terrible, terrible place as a country. How do we prevent that?”

“That’s all I am thinking about right now. My short answer is that the Democrats have to do something extraordinary — forge a national unity ticket the likes of which they have never forged before. And that’s true even if Democrats nominate someone other than Bernie Sanders.”

A new East Carolina University poll of the South Carolina primary finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic field with 31%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 23%, Tom Steyer at 20%, Elizabeth Warren at 8%, Pete Buttigieg at 6%, Amy Klobuchar at 2%.

There are 8% still undecided.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC News that she is comfortable with Bernie Sanders as a potential nominee and doesn’t think he would jeopardize the House majority.

Said Pelosi: “I think whoever our nominee is, we will enthusiastically embrace and we will win the White House, the Senate and the House.”

Jonathan Bernstein: “Indeed, the first problem with this debate was that — after a Nevada showdown in which each of the six candidates on stage could argue that he or she had a plausible way to win the nomination — at this point it’s hard to see anyone but Sanders and Biden with a serious chance, given the results so far, the polls, and the resources they each have. Steyer aside, that’s less about a flawed debate invitation process than about no one dropping out after Nevada, but it’s a real failure of the system.”

“Back to the process. To start with the most obvious thing: Everyone in the U.S. and at least half of the rest of the world was talking about coronavirus on Tuesday — and the stock market cratering amid fears of serious damage to the economy — yet the moderators didn’t get around to that issue until well into the second hour of the debate. In fact, there were hardly any policy questions in the first hour at all, with the moderators instead inviting candidates to pick fights with one another and pushing them on recent campaign controversies.”

“In other words, the debate on CBS wasn’t much different from recent ones on NBC and CNN. For better or worse, that’s how the journalists who run these things want it. They hope sparks will fly, and they want to be seen as asking tough questions.”

“But that doesn’t serve the interests of the party.”

A new Economist/YouGov poll finds Bernie Sanders leading the Democratic presidential field with 30%, followed by Joe Biden at 20%, Elizabeth Warren at 16%, Mike Bloomberg at 11%, Pete Buttigieg at 9% and Amy Klobuchar at 4%.

“It’s a hard no. Bernie has said he’s going to fund his presidential campaign with small-dollar contributions, and I think we can do that. I think we can raise over a billion dollars in small-dollar contributions.”

— Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver, quoted by NBC News, refusing financial support from Michael Bloomberg in the general election.

“Israel’s foreign minister denounced Democratic front-runner Bernie Sanders on Wednesday for what he called his ‘horrifying comment’ about Jerusalem, saying that those who support Israel would not back Sanders’ presidential candidacy after such remarks,” the AP reports.

“At a contentious Democratic debate on Tuesday night in South Carolina, Sanders labeled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘reactionary racist’ and said he’d consider reversing President Trump’s move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

“In a daring foray into American domestic politics, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said there was a not a Jew in the world who ‘hasn’t dreamed of Jerusalem’ and Sanders words were so severe that he had no choice but to retort.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Texas finds Joe Biden and Bernie tied in the Democratic primary race with 20%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 17%, Mike Bloomberg at 12%, Pete Buttigieg at 11% and Amy Klobuchar at 7%.

Key takeaway: If Bloomberg were not on the ballot, Biden would lead Sanders 31% to 25%.