joining me now to discuss is cnn commentator, an assistant editor for the washington post . good morning, david. hey. okay so we re 40 days out, ah, like it makes me feel so good to say that. we re getting close. we re 40 days out. this is not a drill. finally so we re like a month out or so what is this time period? what does this mean for candidates as iowa is approaching? yeah, good morning, merry christmas. i think the candidates are really going to have to look at maximizing tear time between now and february 3rd. you got this shaping up to be a big four race. biden, sanders, warren and bute dig. nationally biden s got that advantage. in iowa the first is that it to caucus, bute gig up. if you look at the real clear politics average in iowa he s up with 22% of the vote. so the question for the senatorial candidates, warren and sanders, who will spend some of their january in an