Good morning. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the 2020 field in Iowa with 32% among likely Democratic caucus-goers, per a new CNN/Des Moines Register poll.

• Bernie 19%; Beto 11%

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2020's Executive Decision

The Big Question: Can an executive win the Democratic nomination? At least three billionaire businessmen are considering a bid in 2020. While all are distant long-shots for the Democratic ticket, their entry into the race could dramatically influence the substance of the political debate:

• Mike Bloomberg (Net worth: $44.1 billion) could amplify the discussion around climate change, gun control and education simply through the sheer volume of his ad spend on those issues.

• Howard Schultz (Net worth: $3.3 billion) could focus the discussion on fiscal responsibility by leveraging the success of the Starbucks brand, which is a fixture across urban and rural America.

• Tom Steyer (Net worth: $1.6 billion) could force a litmus test among Democrats over their stance on impeaching President Donald Trump, a cause that has earned the hedge-fund investor national attention.

Their biggest liabilities: Pragmatism, which may not fare well with progressives. Wealth, which may not fare well with populists. A general lack of the political charisma and rhetorical gifts that have been defining features of the last two Democratic presidents, which won't fare well with anyone.

Bonus: The Hoover Institution's Bill Whalen talks to the Guardian's David Smith about "the billionaire boys club":

• "Put Steyer and Schultz and Bloomberg in front of an audience in Iowa and tell me which one connects? ... It has to be Steyer because of his message to hang them high. It’s not Bloomberg talking about what he did for infrastructure in New York."

How they fared in the CNN/DMR poll: Bloomberg 3%; Steyer 0%; Schultz not on the list (!) ... But as Smith notes, "these are early days and corporate titans can buy name recognition."

Bloomberg

Silicon Valley fails the Senate

Today in D.C.: The Senate Intelligence Committee will release a new report providing the most conclusive evidence to date that Russian agents used social media to try to help Donald Trump win the White House — and that Facebook, Twitter and Google did little to help the Senate's investigation.

The report, conducted by Oxford University and Graphika, highlights the tech giants' “belated and uncoordinated response” to the disinformation campaign and their failure to share relevant data with investigators, WaPo's Craig Timberg and Tony Romm report:

• "Facebook ... provided the Senate with copies of posts from 81 Facebook pages and information on 76 accounts ... but it did not share posts from other user accounts run by the [Russian Internet Research Agency.]

• "Twitter ... made it challenging for outside researchers to collect and analyze data on its platform through its public feed."

• "Google ... submitted information in an especially difficult way for the researchers to handle, providing content such as YouTube videos but not the related data that would have allowed a full analysis."

The Big Picture: The report is another black mark on Silicon Valley's social media giants and reinforces the idea that they aren't taking full responsibility for their impact on American politics.

🦌Fun, unrelated thing: Nadia Shira Cohen's' Norway Dispatch: "Where Reindeer Are a Way of Life" ... because it's almost Christmas and the story is great.

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America's 'superstar cities'

The Big Idea: "Technology is creating an economy in which superstar employees work for superstar firms that gather them into superstar cities, leading to a stark geographic concentration of wealth unlike any seen in the past century," WSJ's Christopher Mims reports:

• "The latest example of this is Apple announcing this past week a billion-dollar investment in a new campus that could ultimately accommodate up to 15,000 employees in a city already red hot with talent (Austin, Texas)."

• "That follows Amazon’s recent choice to put its two new headquarters in existing superstar cities (New York and Washington, D.C.)."

The Big Picture: "In an age when the reach of everything we make is greater than ever, members of an elite class of bankers, chief executives, programmers, Instagram influencers and just about anyone with in-demand technical skills have seen their incomes grow far faster than those of the middle class."

• Right on time: Google has just announced a $1-billion real estate expansion of its New York City offices.

Bonus: There's also growing inequality among midsize cities. NYT's Ben Casselman reports that "Nashville .... Columbus ... and Indianapolis are thriving because of a combination of luck, astute political choices and well-timed investments .... [while] Birmingham ... Providence, R.I., and Rochester, are falling further behind."

Market Links

• Adam Schiff relishes his influence (TNY)

• David Pecker wields immense power (NYT)

• President Trump lashes out at SNL (THR)

Charley Gallay/Getty

Scott Stuber takes Hollywood

Talk of Tinseltown, via NYT's Brooks Barnes: Netflix movie chief Scott Stuber "is fast becoming one of the most important — and disruptive — people in the film business" as he seeks "to make the streaming service’s original film lineup as formidable as its television operation."

• "The rapturously reviewed 'Roma,' ... which has pushed the internet giant into the center of the Oscar race ... is just the start of Mr. Stuber’s cinematic onslaught."

• "Stuber’s operation is set up to supply 55 original films a year, including some with budgets as high as $200 million."

• "Stuber ... has films coming from Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Dee Rees, Guillermo del Toro, Noah Baumbach and ... Michael Bay." He says Meryl Streep, Ben Affleck, Eddie Murphy, Sandra Bullock and Dwayne Johnson have also signed on for Netflix movies.

The Big Picture: Netflix's push into cinema "is forcing old-line studios and multiplex chains to confront a panic-inducing question: Will the streaming company that prompted many people to cut the cable cord now cause people to stop going to theaters?"

• "Netflix mostly bypasses theaters. To qualify for awards, a handful of Netflix movies appear simultaneously online and in art theaters in New York and Los Angeles. ... [or] in cinemas first — but only for one to three weeks."

• Stuber: “In a world where consumer choice is driving everything ... we’re trying to get to a place where consumers have theatrical viewing as a choice. But ... are still able to see movies without a long wait.”

Bonus: Get to know Scott: "Stuber ... has a mellow, genial style that stands out in monomaniacal Hollywood. ... He left his job at Universal in 2005 to become a producer, specializing in bro-culture comedies like 'Ted' and 'You, Me and Dupree.'"

Dept. of Cautionary Tales, or... What the studios are reading: "Mortal Engines," a steampunk fantasy adventure from Universal, could lose "upwards of $100 million," Variety reports. "Some even project that number could float to more than $125 million."

• What went wrong: "It’s based on Philip Reeve’s book series that’s not that widely known in the U.S. It also lacks any major movie stars and has a plot that’s difficult to convey in a television spot or a poster."

Pacific Press/Getty

TV this year, next year

This Year, via Slate's Willa Paskin:

• "I don’t see so much awful TV as I do a vast amount of good-enough television — you know, decent, not awful, justifies a Netflix subscription, sure-I-guess-I’ll-keep-watching, professionally made television."

• "Why is this? ... TV platforms right now have the same goal as tech companies ... and that is: engagement. Keep people on and using the platform for as many minutes a day as they possibly can."

• "As television has moved from a commercial model to a subscription one ... the industry cares less about when we watch than how much."

• "These systematic forces have put a premium on TV you will keep watching rather than TV that is actually good."

Next Year, via Vanity Fair's Joy Press:

• "[With] Apple, Disney, and WarnerMedia enter an already-teeming TV marketplace. ... 2019 will bring an onslaught of powerful new streaming options competing for American eyeballs — and wallets."

• "No one knows how many streaming services the market can bear. Would you pay for three? Five? Fifteen?"

What's Next: Nielsen reports that nearly half of us are "always" or "very often" on our phones while watching TV. .... Which sort of raises questions about Nielsen ratings as a reliable metric of engagement.

See you tomorrow.