From left: Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Cory Booker, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Washington governor Jay Inslee, and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio pose before the start of the second night of the second Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, Mich., July 31, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

First, they had to compete against the House impeachment hearings, then America took a break from paying attention to politics for the holidays, and then 2020 started off with a shocking U.S. military strike against a top Iranian general Qasem Suleimani.

We are 27 days away from the Iowa caucuses. The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post did not have stories about the Democratic primary on the front page today; one ran below the fold in the New York Times. The most-discussed and linked-to stories on Memeorandum right now are about potential Iranian responses, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s vow to force votes on witnesses in the impeachment trial, and Iranian Americans being questioned at the border. The bizarre incorrect Pentagon letter about withdrawing troops, the Puerto Rican earthquake, Ricky Gervais, the Harvey Weinstein trial — the news cycle is crowded and is likely to remain that way for a while.


The Democratic primary just isn’t the biggest story of the day most days, and when it is, the coverage focuses only on the big four. Quick: When was the last time you saw coverage of something Amy Klobuchar said on the campaign trail? It may have been her speech in a snowstorm announcing her campaign. What’s the last thing you remember hearing Cory Booker saying? How many people even remember that Michael Bennet and Deval Patrick are running for president? Michael Bloomberg’s ubiquitous advertising campaign is costing him a bundle, but at least they remind people that he’s running.

The Democrats might have some good reasons to be nervous about all of this. Donald Trump’s off-the-cuff, never-stopping, tweeting-at-all-hours style of communication has massive flaws and liabilities. But it also sets the agenda and sucks up all of the oxygen in the media atmosphere — and this is separate from the traditional powers of the president’s “bully pulpit.” If Trump wants to make the news media discuss a topic, all he has to do is say he’s thinking of signing an executive order about it and voila — instant controversy that eats up the news cycle. You have to wonder how, say, Buttigieg will handle summer and autumn going toe-to-toe with the ever-changing, never-stopping, relentless Trump circus.