We start today with some expert assessments of where things stand in the extraordinary 2016 US presidential campaign, with just 10 months to go before the November 8th national elections. The Iowa caucuses are on Monday, leading off a season of primary elections that will culminate this summer with the Republican and Democratic Parties' nominating conventions. Once again, it’s in to be out of the mainstream. That might be good news for candidates Trump, Cruz and Sanders, but Clinton, Rubio and Bush can take comfort in polls showing that large percentages of Iowa voters have yet to make up their minds about who should succeed Barack Obama in the White House.
Helping us to make sense of the 2016 presidential campaigns at this important juncture are three seasoned political observers: Jenna Johnsonis covering the Trump campaign for the Washington Post. She joins Tom on the phone from Des Moines, Iowa, along with studio guests E.R. Shipp, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and journalist-in-residence at MorganState University, andLester Spence, author and political science professor at Johns Hopkins University.
NPR will have complete coverage of the Iowa caucuses from 9-11 on Monday night here on 88.1. Ari Shapiro and Audie Cornish will host the Iowa special, with analysis from Mara Liasson and Ron Elving, and reports from the campaign headquarters of all the leading candidates.
