New York Times: “The cause of Mr. Biden’s weakness in Iowa is fairly obvious: His national edge is mainly attributable to a wide advantage among black voters, and relatively speaking, there aren’t many black voters in Iowa.”

“The state’s Democratic voters are also relatively young, and caucuses tend to favor ideologically consistent, progressive candidates with highly engaged grass-roots support.”

“Tulsi Gabbard’s slashing debate performance is giving her presidential campaign a badly-needed pulse — and stoking a flurry of speculation about what her end game is,” Politico reports.

“Gabbard delivered a piercing, if inaccurate, appraisal of Kamala Harris’ law enforcement record — then turned it into a misleading, yet effective, online ad push. Adding to the intrigue, she had a hushed sideline conversation with Joe Biden — with whom she seems to have little in common politically — after the debate.”

“It’s all triggered a parlor game back in Hawaii, where the four-term congresswoman is at risk of losing a primary for her House seat as she’s stuck at 1 percent in the crowded race for the Democratic presidential nomination.”

Sen. Kamala Harris “will make the first television advertising purchase of her presidential campaign Thursday, investing in a six-figure TV and digital buy across the first-in-the-nation caucus state of Iowa,” CNN reports.

Alan Abramowitz: “I find no evidence that Russian attempts to target voters in key swing states had any effect on the election results in those states. Instead, the results were almost totally predictable based on the political and demographic characteristics of those states, especially their past voting tendencies, ideological leanings, and demographics. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Russians weren’t trying to influence the results or that they might not succeed in the future. Nor does it speak to Russian efforts to hack into U.S. voting systems and potentially alter voter registration data or even election results themselves.”

“There are plenty of grounds for real concern here. Indeed, the Electoral College system used to choose the president almost invites efforts to interfere in the election. Whereas trying to affect the national popular vote results would probably be prohibitively expensive, efforts to target a few key swing states could be much more cost-effective and harder to detect.”

“Sen. Kamala Harris is increasingly pitching herself as the presidential candidate who can bridge the growing divide within the Democratic Party by focusing more on kitchen-table issues than ideological labels,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Competing against fellow top-tier Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose campaign slogan is ‘big structural change,’ and Sen. Bernie Sanders who has been promising a ‘political revolution,’ Ms. Harris has in recent appearances tried to distinguish herself by laying out a vision that is still liberal, but less far-reaching than those of the two prominent progressives.”

“She has also sought to be more aggressive on issues like health-care reform and climate change than former Vice President Joe Biden, the front-runner in the primary contest who has accused Ms. Harris of lacking clear positions.”