Good Tuesday morning, I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, sponsored by Farma.

Today is primary day in California, or as my colleagues call it, the Super Tuesday of 2018.

Here's why California is important and complicated. The New York Times, Nate Cohn, says that California is a leading indicator for the midterm elections.

He calls it like getting a bunch of House polls for free in June.

The primaries in the Golden State differ from the general election by a result of just

three percentage points.

If this is a wave, Nate, writes, it will be easy to tell.

Democrats would be close to half the vote in the seven districts that Hillary Clinton won

in 2016. The headline in the

LA Times is clear. Today is make or break for Democrats in California's House races. Democrats told us

that registered Dems trail Republicans in California's 39th and 48th districts, both Southern California

seats, the party hopes to pick up. The Democrat we spoke to said this is a major disadvantage. But if Dems get locked out of two competitive seats, the party hopes to pick up. The Democrat we spoke to said this is a

major disadvantage. But if Dems get locked out of two competitive districts, there are five seats

that went for Hillary Clinton in California and 23 nationwide. That's before the new Pennsylvania

map added to Hillary Clinton districts. Winning all of those, a tall task, would give Democrats

the House. The Washington Post

Carol Lannig, Bob Costa, Roz Helderman, and Josh Dawsey write, behind the scenes, Trump's lawyers

are preparing for a showdown with Bob Mueller. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that just

10 Eagles were scheduled to go to the White House to celebrate their Super Bowl championship with

the president. President Trump canceled that appearance, citing the controversy over the national anthem.

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