stuck in the middle with you ♪ stuck in the middle. that's the state of the democratic race. i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. all eyes now on nevada. today is the first of four days of early voting. the caucus that occurs next saturday night. now, traditionally, iowa and new hampshire provide clarity to presidential elections but that didn't happen this year. the field winnowed only among the outliers and the competition is intensifying among those not on the far left, seems to be creating the clearest path for the candidate who is in that most progressive lane. bernie sanders deserves to be recognized as the front-runner, having effectively tied pete buttigieg in iowa. having won in new hampshire and now leading in the polls in nevada. but bernie is unrepresentative of where most of the votes have been cast thus far. on tuesday night, while participating in cnn's new hampshire coverage, i fired off this tweet, after moat of the vote was counted. as i just said on cnn, add

sanders and warren, then compare to buttigieg plus klobuchar plus biden, new hampshire voted for more moderates than progressives. later others made similar observations including the l.a. times who said if you lumped together the vote totals for sanders, and warren, klobuchar, biden, gabbard and yang a combined 58.7% of the vote. warren sputtered in new hampshire. when she said there are only two states into the process, she was literally correct. but one of those states is her neighbor and two-thirds of new hampshire is reached by the boston media market. meanwhile, mayor pete has come nowhere to distinguish himself unlike bernie sanders he's running in in a lane that is crowd eye by amy klobuchar. both hope to with a morse

diverse electorate gets in, say, nevada and south carolina. of course, waiting in the wings is mike bloomberg according to a consult survey is running third behind sanders and buttigieg. what does it mean, right now, until warren gets her mojo back, bernie has the best path where the democratic middle is muddled. that realization is causing angst for those who fear that a democratic position is problematic. representative cedric richmond said in a conference call that sanders would cause down-ballot carnage if selected. so will anyone arrive in milwaukee with the requisite 1901 delegates needed for the nomination? probably not.

post 2016, super delegates, leaving those wonder if the 731 party elders puts someone like sanders over the top. we talk about a brokered convention every four years. maybe this is the year that comes to pass. i want know what you think. go to the website at smerconish.com this hour and answer this week's survey question. will any of the democratic presidential candidates win the nomination on the first ballot? with me now political reporter at the nevada independent megan mehserle. megan, looking forward to next saturday in nevada. it's a caucus state. caucus states usually reward passion, where does the passion reside in nevada? >> i think there's no surprise that a lot of that passion right now is behind bernie sanders. we've seen him have an excellent organization here in the state. he's by far the biggest

operation, 250 plus staffers on the ground right now. and voters are energized by iowa and new hampshire. he's well position here even better positioned coming out of those contests. at the same time, i think we're seeing folks sort of rallying behind pete buttigieg as well. he was slower to build his operation in the state. he does have that team momentum coming out of the iowa and new hampshire. and i think he's hoping to capture that with the team he's bit here. and he does have the organizational capacity he needs to harness that energy and translate those results into early voting and the caucus next saturday. >> i reference the fact that early voting begins today. so that may sound odd to some folks that you can vote today and for four days but then there's a caucus. what happens? how do they treat those ballots that are cast in the next four days? >> right. it's a really interesting procedure they've designed, et

cetera essentially folks beginning today can go to roughly 80 early voting sites across the state. you have to go to one in your county. but you can go to any one in your county and you can cast your presidential votes early. the way those are designed, the presidential preferences will flow back to your home precinct on caucus day just if you've been in person alongside your all of your neighbors' preferences. they're requiring up to five. that's because of the realignment process. if your candidate doesn't have 15% at your caucus, your candidate isn't viable so you have to pick a different one. so they're asking early votes to pick multiple choices in case their candidate doesn't make the cut on the day of caucus. >> so it's a rank system essentially for those who vote in the next four days. megan, what is the culinary union and why does it matter so much? >> yes, the culinary union here in nevada. they're the most politically

powerful union known for turning the tide in close elections. they represent about 60,000 hotel workers across the state. they announced this week that they will not be endorsing in the democratic presidential race. there's been a lot of speculation of whether they would get in. joe biden was rumored to be the favorite. he was actually the on candidate that the union sector to treasurer mentioned by name in their nonendorsement announcement calling joe biden a friend. so this decision by the culinary is sort of leveling the playing field. the support for public option and not medicare for all. and the union has health strufts and it's strongly opposed to any medicare for all that would get rid of their union health care. >> final question, joe biden counting on a more diverse electorate that he'll face in nevada or that he had in new hampshire or iowa. how does he stand among folks of color, as best we know? >> yeah, he has a long

relationship with folks here in the state. when i talk to organizers, working with communities of color, they say that trust is built over time. and the candidates that have just showed up in the cycle and just starting to build relationships with communities of color. and joe biden has done that. came out here in this 30s, a campaign for harry reid. and he's been barack obama's running mate. he has that relationship. he's expected to do well with voters of color. but we're waiting to see with his performance in iowa and new hampshire whether those voters are going to take a look at someone else. >> megan, well done. thank you so much. >> thank you. as we get further into primary season a contested convention seems to be more than a far-fetched possibility. here to break it down is cnn political writer and analyst, harry enten. harry, we talk about it every four years might this be the year? >> i think it could be. my god, the fantasy might actually come true.

i'll just tell you, looking at the earlier results we've seen so far in this primary season, i really do think it's possible. i think we should point out what the contested convention is, right. it's basically the idea that no candidate on the first ballot will have a majority of delegates. and right now, based upon the results of the first few contests, it seems that the democratic field is so messy. and looking at the national polls, it's so messy, you know, that this could in fact really happen this year. >> does the smoothest path at this stage appear to be that for bernie sanders for the reasons that i offered in my monologue, which it to say, that if warren has lost her mojo, you've got a lot of those so-called more centrist democrats jammed in the center lane, leaning to bernie on the far left? >> yeah, to an extent, that's true. but as we were talking about what you need is a majority of delegates. you don't just need a plurality of delegates. as you pointed out in the intro,

yes, bernie sanders has done well. essentially tying in iowa and he won in new hampshire but use the state of in that -- or use iowa as an example, right? look at 2020. look at this, this is all of the candidates of which candidates have received 15% of the vote for more going back to 1992. the democrats a lot with a 15% threshold. every year through here, there were no years at which four candidates received at least 15% of the vote or more. in iowa, what happened, we had four candidates reach 15% of the vote or more. that is the type of formula that we need for a contested convention. even if you look at new hampshire it was the first democratic primary in history at which three candidates received 20% of the vote more. you combine a messy field and that is exactly the formula that you need for a contested convention. >> harry, in "the wall street journal," carl rowe royvoiced i this way, the front row means

that 40% of delegates will be selected by march 4. do the math. say the front-runner after super tuesday has 35% of the delegates selected that far, he must then have 60% of delegates in the remaining contests to have a first-ballot victory at the democratic convention. that's not impossible but it will be hard to do. do you buy into that mind-set? >> i absolutely do buy into that mind-set. the fact is the calendar is the calendar and they front-loaded the calendar, right? by super tuesday coming up in a few weeks, you'll have 38%, i believe of the delegates all of them totallyallocated. by the end of march, 65% are allocates. unless the field can get its group together, right, all of a sudden, preferences start rolling whereby we have two people. as long as you can two or three people picking up delegates and reaching that 15% threshold, we've seen that multiple candidates can do that.

that's the formula, right? it's not just one candidate and a weak front-runner, what you really need is multi fiple candidates reaching that 15% threshold. i have to be honest with you, michael. i study this stuff. i watch all of the election night tape. this is something that we've simply never seen before. i think it's time that we recognize that in fact this is a real possibility. >> harry, well done. thank you so much for being here. >> shalom, my friend, be well. >> what are your thoughts? go to my facebook page. what do we have, kathryn? this comes from facebook. i'll believe in a brokered convention when i see it. i know, russ, you hear it from people like me every four years that, wow, this could go down to the wire. but harry just made a really compelling case, did he not? and what happens is, if someone cannot break out on super tuesday, then they really need a stronger showing from that point

forward. by the time our heads hit the pillow on march 3rd, 38% of the delegates will have been selected. and you got a lot of candidates still on that stage who seemingly aren't going quietly into the night. of course, it all depends on money in the end whether they can hang in. i want to know what you think. go to my websit website @smerconish.com. answer my question, will any of the democratic presidential candidates win the nomination on the first ballot? up ahead, mike bloomberg has been rising from the polls without debating. but he could qualify for the one this wednesday. how might he do? well, we have asked one of nation's foremost debate coaches to watch hours of prior bloomberg debates. and he is here to tell us what he learned. plus, president trump is unusually fond of reminding everyone how short mike bloomberg is. but does height matter in elections? and why is the president so obsessed with calling his adversaries little. >> little michael will fail.

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president trump seems obsessed with mike bloomberg's height or lack thereof. the president who is either 6'2" or 6'3" depending on the source has used diminutives to describe his adversaries even if they're not short. little marco, little mike, and little rocket man. stature seems all that trump can talk about, quote, mini mike is

a 5'4" inch of dead energy who does not want to be on the debate with these professional politicians. no boxes, please. he hates crazy bernie and will with enough money possibly stop him, bernie's people will go nuts. and mini mike bloomberg he's a looser who has money and can't debate has zero presence. many has low energy bush but jeb has more political still. so far, mike bloomberg has been swatting back. put it on the screen. donald trump we know many of the same people in new york. behind your back, they laugh at you and call you a carnival barking clown. they know you inherited a fortune and skwauquandered it w stupid deals and i have the record to defeat you and i will. here's what he says about the height issue. >> somebody said, you know, that he's taller than me, he calls me little mike.

and it's answer is, donald, where i come from, we measure your height from your neck up. >> joining me now to discuss is greg murray, professor of political science at augusta university. the editor of the journal pa politicipau politics and here's donald trump's driver's license, he's shown to be 6'2", i found my high school football program where i listed might height as 5'10" in truth, i'm 5'9." and i'm not alone. put on the screen, kathryn what was discovered. men's health magazine once looked at publish heights and checked them against reality. it found that charles bronson was 235'7", not 5'11" and burden

reynolds was 5'8", not 5'11. professor murray, how tall are you? >> i, sir, am i proud 5'9" tall. the height of typical american male. >> what is the relationship, because you've studied the relationship. is there a correlation between height and electability at the presidential level? >> you know what it's crazy. as a scientist, i studied this, i'm probably a great person to do it because i am so skeptical of it. i have studied a lot. and i continue to find it over and over again. yes, there does seem to be some sort of relationship between an elected leader and a leader's height and how he or she is perceived. male candidates, there is a relationship, we tend to as humans prefer bigger leaders who are more -- have more physical form and ability.

and there's some other reasons scientifically this becomes interesting in terms of people who are bigger, tend to be more likely to think that they are qualified to be a candidate. and more likely to express interest in being a candidate for public office. >> why do you think that's the case? what's underlying that conclusion? >> well, you know, we've talked to a lot of people about this. and thought a lot about it. and it's really hard -- again, this is one of those crazy things in human behavior that you find. the explanation that we've come up with primarily is this has to do with human's revolutionary past. and it was viviolent. and what the argument that we've made and other people have made in the human evolution history, it was violent. people who had allies who were of great physical stature, were more able to acquire and protect vital resource, food, shelter and mates, than people who didn't have physically formidable leaders, because the

idea was the physically formidable people would jump in if they got challenged and somebody tried to take those resources from them. >> we've created a graphic if we can put it on the screen which shows where would president bloomberg fall? i need to make this clear, there is precedent for electing individuals of his statue as president of the united states. you've got to go back a while, but there it is on the screen. >> yes, no doubt. and it happens. and you think in current days when people are on tv, they're not standing next to each other. that this would not have as big of an effect as it has. but it continues to have an effect. and as you notice, these candidates sort of beat up with each other on it. they system to think there's an effect as well. >> i took a look at coyour research. this is fascinating. so you asked subjects to draw a leader, versus draw a common individual. they drew leaders who were

taller. then, you correct me if i'm wrong, when asked about their own leadership potential, the individuals in your sample who were taller were more inclined to view themselves as leaders. >> that's exactly right. you summed it up properly and perfectly. and it is a very interesting fact. actually, i think the bigger question from a scientific perspective at least. and i am a scientist, it's the latter point that you make that folks who are larger in size are more willing to throw themselves -- throw a hat in the ring to run for office. as we all know, and you talk about every saturday on your show, running for office is a brutal process. and it takes some courage to do it. and that's part of, i believe, physical statue is part of the formula that pushes some folks forward into deciding they will do that. >> hey, what do we know? we're just a couple of 5'9" guys, right? >> thank you, yes. >> thank you, professor.

appreciate your expertise. >> thank you, sir. >> let us see what you're saying on my smerconish and twitter and facebook pages. this comes from twitter. trump's degrading of people by using little is probably due to him being a bully of excessive mass and volume. adrienne, it's probably very important to him. here's something else we know about the president, nothing impresses so much as the size of an individual's wallet. on that score, on that ledger, bloomberg's got him beat. which is why i think he retreats to height because he can't talk money with mayor bloomberg. make sure you're answering the survey question @smerconish.com. will any of the democratic presidential candidates win the nomination on the first ballot? up ahead, horrible and very unfair, that's what the president tweeted for the

decision over roger stone's sentence. now there's controversy over whether a.g. barr is trying to get it reduced. what if the recommendation was unfair? and you're going to love this, mike bloomberg is polling so well that he may qualify for this week's debate which would be his first in more than a decade. how will he do? i asked one of the nation's top debate coaches to go to the videotape. and here's what the president thinks. >> look, he's a lightweight. he's a lightweight. you're going to find that out. he's also one of the worst debaters i've ever seen. and his presence is zero.

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so what kind of debater is mike bloomberg? as the upstart billionaire candidate continues his rise in the polls he could qualify for the next democratic debate wednesday in las vegas. he needs to hit 10% or more in

four dnc recognized polls. well, he's already hit that in three. he just needs one more before 11:59 p.m. tuesday night. but does he actually want that to happen? or has his strength so far partly derived from staying out of the fray? his previous debate experience was three times that he ran for new york city mayor, 2001, 2005 and 2009. so the last time that he did it was over a decade ago. what can we glean? i asked dr. todd graham to review hours of bloomberg tape he did. he's the executive university in carbondale, his debates have won five national championships. three times he's been named national debate coach of the year. todd, thank you so much for doing this. i know it took a lot of time. i'll talk style and substance. but let's begin with style. what do you get from bloomberg stylistically? >> well, you know, i hate to say

this, sometimes president trump is absolutely right when he does sort at look at other people, especially on television, because he has a lot of experience there. i was watching your clip earlier of president trump saying that bloome had low energy and zero presence. i've got to be honest, i've never seen bloomberg in a debate. i watched these three debates and trump's not wrong. mike bloomberg doesn't have a great deal of presence. what i wrote was that he was very sort of dry, informative, sort of matter of fact like, but he doesn't have a lot of volume variety. a lot of rate variety, like the rate at which he speaks, so, yeah, there's a point to he's a very dullish debater. >> is that necessarily a bad thing? >> now that's a good question. it is not a necessarily bad question. indeed, i think it would be a benefit debating one-on-one, et cetera specially with donald trump.

we could talk about him standing up for himself, he wouldn't have a trouble. i think he would be a nice contrast to trump. the problem is, doing a large democratic debate where he might be five other people, he'd be the six debater that might lead you into a little more trouble because you really do need to have a little more pop in the debate stage. when it's a big stage, a lot of people on stage. especially because first impressions matter, michael. a lot of these debates, it's the first time i've seen any of these candidates' debates. this will be the first time that mike bloomberg has ever been seen by the majority of the american public. and first impressions do matter. if he comes out with a dry approach, i think he'll be overwhelmed by the five democrats on stage. >> let's go to the tape. this is mike bloomberg in 2001. roll it. >> elections are about choices. and choices are made based on character and accomplishment and

potential. when it comes to character, i think anybody that's known me for the last 59 years will tell you that i am honest, i am loyal. sometimes, to a fault. i speak my mind. i always try to be realistic. when it comes to accomplishment, i've built a business. i've hired 8,000 people. i've negotiated contracts, dealt with unions. met budgets. delivered things on time. >> todd, in his tweets recently, he's been pithy. he's had one-liners. i've shown some of them today. how about on the debate stage? is he prone to zingers? >> not really. and here's the problem because i've seen those tweets as well. i've seen some of those comments and so when you asked me to watch these three debates, i thought the personalities that i saw online on those tweets was going to come out in the debates. and to be honest, it really didn't. what you just saw there, you just played a clip that was his

closing of the debate. there was no question that was his pitch. you can vote for me because i get things delivered on time. just had no energy and enthusiasm. and that won't play well on the democratic stage coming up. so he needs to have more energy. >> okay. >> yeah. >> i want to show you body language. kathryn roll the body language cut that we have and let todd analyze this. a lot of use of the hands. i'm a very active speaker. what do you make of this, todd? >> this is a mirroring gesture. i actually call this working at amazon because he's lifting those boxes. he's moving those boxes around. i see this a lot in public speakers. it's not a bad deal. it's just a mirror. it's a mirroring deal with gestures. i don't think the gestures are going to be any kind of a problem there. i think he'll be fine with them. he's comfortable enough with them. >> if the last few days are any indication, he's going to be under fire. i want to show you mayor

bloomberg in 2009, in the debate. roll that. then we'll talk. >> i think you're wrong. it wasn't the fourth grade in the city. it was the four grade in the state. the city's test scores don't come out until next month but we're optimistic and show real progress. but what you can't escape that the progress in the schools is very different than back in the days when bill thomason ran the schools. >> he was correcting the moderator and taking control again of that stage. respond to that. >> the moderator actually just made a mistake. the clip that you played had bloomberg correcting the moderator. saying, no, you're wrong about this. it's this. that's what i mean about the matter of fact way he debates. he will stand up for himself. so don't mistake someone who is calm in demeanor as someone who doesn't push back. i did wash him in several different events in the debates

push back. he really likes to get the last word in. he's a wealthy man. he was the mayor of the largest city. you know, he's not going to take flak from anybody. he's certainly going to push back. it's just in a more subtle sort of a way. a more subtle style. >> and he has faced some of the same questions that i'm sure he'll get wednesday if on the debate stage. this is 2005, the charge of him buying the election. roll it. >> if you've done such a good job as you've claimed, why the need to spend so much money? >> well, first, let me say thank you for having me and thank you to the sponsors. let me get to the question. i'm trying to get my message out to every community in the city. it costs a lot of money. i don't have a big democratic machine behind me. the city is 5 to 1 democratic. i'm trying to have a good record. i'm trying to tell everybody exactly what will we've done. and i'm trying to focus on what we still have to do. this city's gone in the right direction, i believe, but we can

do an awful lot more. and explaining the facts to the people takes time, it takes organization. and it takes a lot of tv time. >> dr. todd graham, how effective an answer to the buying the election question did he have then? >> i thought that was a pretty decent answer. i mean it does take money to win elections now. but the deal is he can actually expand on that answer, he can make it even better because right now, he has the perfect middle ground. i think this is a positive that he's self-funding it. yes, he's going to take flak. he's buying an election. the other democrats aren't happy about it. but here's the problem, pete buttigieg has been making arguments in the debate because he takes money from big donors that we should take all of the money we can get because we're in this, as pete buttigieg said -- we're in the fight of our lives we got to use all of the tools in the toolbox. >> here's what i'm taking away -- this is what i'm taking away from dr. todd graham that one-on-one with trump, the

contrast could be to bloomberg's advantage that understated factual dead-on approach. but distinguishing himself on a crowded stage is more problematic. yes or no? did i get it? >> you got it absolutely right. remember, rising expectation is real. if people expect bloomberg to be this big persona on stage. and the first time they see him he's not that, plus, he's getting attacked by all of the other democrats who are talking about the billionaire class, et cetera, i think that could really hurt him in a democratic primary debate. in fact, one of his former advisers said he should probably sit out the debates until at least the super tuesday debates. >> yes, that was eric weirson. thank you dr. graham. appreciate it. from facebook, what do we have kathryn? bloomberg must debate asap. we need to see what he's made of. well, do you really get a judge of a man or woman in a

60-secreta60 second debates? i've watched them. i've been present for many of them. who can get it down in 60 seconds. frankly, i think i'll be a hell of a debater with the training i've gleaned here every saturday. i think i can get it done in 60 seconds. does that make me a good president? not necessarily. i want you to answer the question on smerconish.com, will any of the democratic presidential candidates win the nomination on the first ballot? still to come, seven to nine years, that was the recommended sentence for trump associate roger stone that was overruled this week by the justice department. so what's in store for the man who never shies away from controversy? >> i revel in your hate treared because if i weren't effective you wouldn't hate me. one-second scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader so you can stay in the moment.

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thursday. on his conviction of lying to congress and witness tampering. federal prosecutors now have until tuesday to respond to stone's request for that new trial. the latest development caps off a chaotic week regarding his case after attorney general william barr confirmed thursday that he personally stepped in to overa overrule the prosecutor's recommendation of seven to nine years in prison for stone. that came hours after trump tweeted that the recommended sentence was horrible and very unfair. although barr said he made the decision before the president's tweet. with me now the chair of the white collar defense time at holland and knight, a former u.s. attorney john brownlee. you'll remember that he successfully represented bob mcdonald in a corruption case that went to the supreme case of the united states. counselor, ten years you spent in the justice department. you were a u.s. attorney. now you're a private practice defense lawyer. i think you're well suited to answer this question.

is seven to nine years excessive for roger stone? >> i think it is. i think that, if you look at the other types of cases that have come into the justice department, basically, this is a case about making false statements and encouraging others to do the same, the seven to nine years is well outside of the heartland of these kinds of cases. what the prosecutors have done, like many prosecutors do, they got their conviction and now they're seeking a very high sentence. but if you kind of look at other cases that have been brought in the way that the guidelines were calculated, seven to nine years is excessive. and my guess is his sentence will be significantly less than that. >> i know that you know this federal judge. how do you think that she'll respond, if at all, to all of the discussion, the controversy, the media coverage in the last couple of days? >> right. judge jackson is very experienced. she's been on the bench almost a decade. he was a federal prosecutor

herself. she was a very well respected defense lawyer at a law firm. my sense is she will put things aside. look at the facts, look at the law, look at the other cases and look at where others have been sentenced and find an appropriate sentence that is significantly less than what the government had requested. >> is there an analogous case, is there something that you're thinking of a high-profile corruption case that this reminds you of that you can say so-and-so got "x" years? >> yeah, the libby case comes to mind. mr. libby was convicted of making false statements. it had political nature to the case itself. he received 30 months. his sentence was commuted so he never actually served a sentence but it was 30 months. general cartwright, he was the former vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. he was convicted of lying to the fbi with a leak with regard to

the media. his guide range was zero to six months. he was actually pardoned by president obama before his sentence came. you also have general petraeus, he had pleaded to mishandling information. he also had been not truthful to the fbi. he received a misdemeanor and no jail time. so the range on these is probably somewhere between one and two years. i think in mr. stone's case, the fact that the government really uses to try to jack up the sentence is an eight-point bump in the guidelines, what he allegedly did is threaten another witness with physical harm. now, that witness has come forward and said he didn't view it as physical harm. i think he said something in a text about that. so that is a factual thing that the court will have to review and make a just on. but, again, i think those cases are more in line with what you'll see as opposed to seven to nine years. >> john brownlee, that was

excellent. thank you so much for offering it. >> thank you very much. still to come, your best and worst tweets on facebook comments like this from facebook. seven to nine years, rather vindictive, leave the old man alone. does not endear anyone to the tactics used over the last three years. and i wanted to hear from mr. brownlee. because of his credentials. a u.s. attorney, spent ten years in the u.s. justice department and now is a criminal defense lawyer. and tells us straight down the middle that seven to nine was on the excessive side. i hate people weighing in on this. they like the president so they think that stone is getting screwed. or they dislike the president and they want the book thrown at him. roger stone should be sentenced this week or whenever it occurs based only on the facts of the case. coming up, we'll give you the results of the question @smerconish.com. quickly vote, will any of the democratic presidential candidates win the nomination on the first ballot?

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time to see how you responded to the survey question at smerconish.com this week. will any of the presidential candidates win the nomination on the fist ballot? the survey says -- 55% no, with more than 10,000 weighing in. wow. interesting. maybe we're all just caught up in the moment but this year, this cycle, does really seem different, doesn't it? we will know more in the next three weeks. not even nevada and south carolina. but march 3rd will be epic and by the time that night ends or

maybe the following day, we will know where this night stands, i think. here's what some of you thought on social media. what do you have, katherine? yes, i think it's going to be brokered convention and the bernie's bro will cause chaos. here's what i heard, i wouldn't be surprised if somebody comes out with the lead but not the nomination. i hear that and it makes intuitive sense of the but there's a reason why they set a threshold at 1,991. and if you don't get there, you haven't made it happen and the convention serves the surprise of who will be the most competitive. here's another from social media. which democratic candidate would benefit most from a brokered convention? well, yvette, the 771 super dell gets don't get to weigh in until

the second ballot. i know people are critical of that and say why don't they get a say. the logic is they are elected officials. they know something about the process, they know something about what it takes to get elected, but they get ridiculed by some. i think there's a purpose they serve. they can pick out a conventional candidate. you can figure out who that might be. join me for my shows, st. louis, raleigh, scottsdale sold out but tickets are still available for bell bellevue, washington. who look beyond the spreadsheets to understand companies, from breakroom to boardroom. who know the only way to get a 360 view is to go around the world to get it. can i rely on deep research to help make quality investment decisions? with capital group, i can. talk to your advisor or consultant for investment risks and information.

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good morning, it's saturday, february 15th. i'm victor blackwell. >> and i'm amara walker. you're in the "cnn newsroom." >> right now presidential candidates are in nevada, exactly one week before the caucuses there. early voting starts today. while the candidates are trying to win over the voters, the nevada democratic party is trying to calm worried people. >> the party has taken steps to avoid the chaos we saw in iowa, scrap planned plans to use the same app that caused problems in iowa and the party said it worked with google too create a caucus calculator.