“A person who was very loyal to the president, which I respect. I’d love to run against him because it’s going to be an election based on competence and I’m really competent.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by the New York Times, on Vice President Joe Biden.

“With his blessing, confidants to Vice President Joe Biden have begun strategizing about travel to early primary states and identified potential donors who could bankroll a campaign even as he remains undecided about whether to pull the trigger on a late-entry 2016 run for president,” Politico reports.

“The moves are a sign that after months of speculation, Biden is taking a few significant if small steps toward a presidential campaign, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Biden’s strategy, the sources say, would be to focus on South Carolina while almost writing off New Hampshire, where both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have considerable footholds.”

“Hillary Clinton denounced Jeb Bush and discussed the rise of the Islamic State. Bernie Sanders held forth on Social Security. But at the Iowa State Fair, where a life-size butter cow rules and fairgoers devour stick-impaled delicacies, it is the candidacy of Donald J. Trump that perhaps best captures the air of raucous excess,” the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: “Donald Trump, the billionaire reality television star whose shamelessness and braggadocio is disrupting the Republican primary, was out of his element here but undoubtedly in command.”

Politico: “For many who had come to see the prized heifers or the famed Butter Cow, the spectacle of Trump was the bigger thrill. In the same world in which candy bars are deep-fried, this billionaire Manhattan businessman is suddenly viewed as a blue-collar champion.”

“I get confused. Oh, well.”

— Hillary Clinton, quoted by the Washington Post, referring to George W. Bush instead of Jeb Bush.

“With a packed Republican presidential field and condensed primary season voting schedule, the Southern states are in a position to play a more prominent campaign-year role than ever before when it comes to helping choose a Republican presidential nominee,” the Washington Post reports.

“Southern states are to hold their primaries on March 1 — a regional early voting blitz that’s been nicknamed the ‘SEC Primary’ after the college football conference.  Eight Southern states will vote that day, with more weighing in over the following two weeks. States that vote before March 15 have their delegates apportioned, rather than a winner-take-all system. In other words, Southern states could represent a delegate bonanza after what may be fractured voting in the first four nominating contests.”