Nikki Haley Dismisses SOTU Response Backlash: ‘I Stand By What I Believe’  —  South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said Wednesday that she stands by her GOP response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, in response to criticism from real estate mogul Donald Trump and some conservative pundits.

Ted Cruz Didn't Disclose Loan From Goldman Sachs for His First Senate Campaign  —  As Ted Cruz tells it, the story of how he financed his upstart campaign for the United States Senate four years ago is an endearing example of loyalty and shared sacrifice between a married couple.

Iowa Poll: Clinton slides, leads Sanders by 2 points  —  Hillary Clinton has lost most of her lead over Bernie Sanders in the race to win Iowa's Democratic presidential caucuses, a new Iowa Poll shows.  —  Clinton, who has been the favorite all along, now leads Sanders by just 2 percentage points …

Ted Cruz Is Breaking Through the Establishment Firewall  —  Several times on RedState we've commented on how the GOP establishment seems to be poised to support and accept a Donald Trump candidacy if the alternative is Ted Cruz (here |  here).  What we are hearing comes mostly from the consultant/bottomfeeder class.

Iran frees U.S. sailors with start of nuclear deal in sight  —  Iran freed 10 U.S. sailors on Wednesday, a day after detaining them aboard two U.S. Navy patrol boats in the Gulf, bringing a swift end to an incident that had rattled nerves just before the expected implementation of a landmark nuclear accord.

Al Jazeera America shutting down  —  Al Jazeera, which made a massive investment in covering the United States less than three years ago, is slamming the brakes on its American operation.  —  Al Jazeera America, a cable news channel that debuted in August 2013, is shutting down.

Trump: Germans Are Going To Riot, Overthrow Merkel; Syrian Migrants Could Be “Trojan Horse”  —  At a rally Tuesday night, dubbed the ‘prebuttal’ to President Obama's final State of the Union address, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump predicted the German people are going to riot …

This is what makes Republicans and Democrats so different  —  MSNBC asked Benjy Sarlin, its reporter on the Republican race, and Alex Seitz-Wald, its reporter on the Democratic race, to flip jobs for a week and write up what they learned.  Their conversation is worth reading in full, but something Sarlin wrote caught my eye:

Rand Paul: GOP is ‘responsible’ for my debate exclusion  —  Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is blaming the GOP for his exclusion from the main debate stage in this week's Republican presidential debate, saying the decision may cost the party the support of libertarian voters.

Heart doctors outraged Florida dumps hospital standards after big gifts to GOP  —  (CNN)The state of Florida is putting thousands of children with heart defects at risk, a group of cardiac doctors say, because of a change in policy that came after Tenet Healthcare contributed $200,000 to Florida Republicans.

Looming setback for public unions would be a political earthquake  —  With Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court took on the outcome of one election.  But the case heard by the Supreme Court on Monday could affect elections for many years.  —  The justices' remarks during arguments …

Why the White House Is Tweeting Photos of Fake Cheese  —  It's officially the cheesiest day of the year at the White House.  —  As part of its post-State of the Union push, the White House is hosting the third annual “Big Block of Cheese Day,” an opportunity for Americans to take to social media …

Anatomy of a moment in macho foreign policy posturing  —  In thinking about U.S. foreign policy, it's always best to count to 10 slowly before speaking.  —  An ongoing theme of Spoiler Alerts' foreign policy coverage is that a lot of allegedly smart people don't say terribly smart things when a foreign policy crisis is occurring.