Tag Archives: Alabama

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Rick Santorum wins Alabama and Mississippi, big spending Romney places third

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From the Wall Street Journal.

Excerpt:

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum won the Alabama and Mississippi primaries Tuesday, pulling off another pair of surprise victories and boosting his claim to be the conservative alternative to Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who built his campaign around the Southern strategy, appeared headed to a second-place finish in both states while Mr. Romney was trailing slightly in third.

The result marked a surprisingly strong showing for Mr. Santorum, as polls had suggested a tight race between Messrs. Romney and Gingrich for the lead in both states. Mr. Santorum had even begun to suggest that he was fighting for a strong showing rather than a win.

In jubilant remarks to supporters in Louisiana, another Southern state whose primary is coming up, Mr. Santorum took a shot at Mr. Romney. “People have said ‘You’re being outspent’ and people are talking about the math and that this race is inevitable,” Mr. Santorum said. “For someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he spent a whole lot of money against me.”

The results were an undeniable boost for Mr. Santorum in his bid to position himself as the conservative alternative to Mr. Romney. Since the beginning of the GOP nomination battle last year, Mr. Romney has benefited from a division among his more conservative rivals.

“I don’t think there was a single poll that had me anywhere close to a win in Mississippi,” Mr. Santorum told supporters. He added, “This campaign is about ordinary folks…going out there and exceeding expectations, defying the odds, because we believe in something bigger than ourselves.”

The Romney campaign had devoted last-minute resources to put its candidate over the top. Mr. Romney made a hastily scheduled visit to Mobile, Ala., on Monday, and an outside group supporting his candidacy spent nearly $2.3 million in Alabama and Mississippi.

Is Santorum too socially conservative?

Let’s see:

The New York Times focused on the “treacherous political ground” occupied by President Obama as the election draws closer, while proving wrong pro-Obama assumptions made in recent stories by Times reporters Susan Saulny and Jackie Calmes, in Tuesday’s front-page poll analysis “Obama’s Rating Falls as Poll Reflects Volatility,” by Jim Rutenberg and Marjorie Connelly.

[…]The responses to poll questions #73 and #74, asking whether employers and religious groups should be forced to cover birth control for their employees, showed that most respondents favor employers be allowed to opt out of covering birth control for moral reasons (51% were in favor of the opt out, while 40% favored making coverage mandatory. The gap grew when the question was narrowed down to “religiously affiliated employers” like hospitals (57% were in favor of the opt out, 36% in favor of the mandate).

[…]As Kaus puts it:

If the Times says women were “split,” you know that must mean they were actually narrowly against the NYT‘s preferred position. Sure enough, when asked, “Should health insurance plans for all employees have to cover the full cost of birth control for female employees or should employers be able to opt out for moral or religious reasons?” women favored opting out by a 46-44 margin. The margin increased to a decisive 53-38  for “religiously affiliated employers, such as a hospital or university.”

The Times has pushed hard on the idea that the debate over birth control and abortion is hurting the party among women. Yet the actual poll data contradicted anti-Republican anecdotes forwarded by Times reporter Susan Saulny on Sunday suggesting “centrist women” were abandoning the GOP and fleeing to Obama.

CBS News broke the poll results from Republican primary voters down by male and female and found that, despite the liberal media insinuation that the issues of birth control and abortion were scaring away women voters, Republican women were actually breaking toward socially conservative candidate Rick Santorum over Mitt Romney by a strong 41%-27% margin. (Men went for Romney over Santorum 32%-27%.) 

Maybe voters should stop worrying about electability and just vote for the best candidate. With an economy like this, my keyboard could run against Obama and win. The man has failed at everything he has tried in the last 3.5 years.

More about Rick Santorum

News

Alabama Senate Republicans pass several pro-life bills

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State Senator George Reed (R-AL)
State Senator George Reed (R-AL)

From Life News.

Excerpt:

After the Alabama state Senate voted to not participate in the abortion funding that will take place under the Obamacare law, legislators then approved a slate of pro-life bills that would limit abortions.

The measures are the first pro-life pieces of legislation to advance in the state Senate, thanks to the 2010 elections allowing pro-life lawmakers control of the body.

The chamber approved SB 298, by Senator Allen, which makes it unlawful to administer any abortion-inducing drug to a woman without her receiving an exam by a physician and would provide a physician with guidelines to follow in administering any abortion-inducing drugs. The bill targets the webcam or telemed abortion process that is generating controversy in Iowa where Planned Parenthood is denying women an in-person consult with a doctor prior to getting the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug that has killed dozens of women worldwide and injured another 1,100 in the U.S. alone as of 2006 FDA figures.

That legislation passed 26-6.

The Senate passed SB 301, by Senator Williams, to defines the term “persons” as used in the Code of Alabama 1975, as including all humans from the moment of fertilization and implantation in the womb. The bill can’t ban abortions, but allows the state to declare that human life begins at that point. The Senate voted 23-7 for that measure.

The chamber also passed SB 308, by Senator Scofield, that requires a physician to perform an ultrasound, provide verbal explanation of the ultrasound, and display the images to pregnant women before performing an abortion. The measure is similar to measures approved in other states that allow women to see the ultrasound of their baby, something abortion centers don’t typically show despite doing them to determine the age of the unborn child before the abortion.

The Senate voted 26-3 for the ultrasound legislation.

Lt. Governor Kay Ivey applauded the votes, saying, “History is being made in the Alabama Legislature. I commend Senator Greg Reed for all of his hard work in making the passage of this bill a reality. The Alabama Legislature is working together to help protect and save the lives of our future generations.”

Sen. Greg Reed added: “This past November’s election had consequences, and in this case, those positive consequences allowed us to pass the first pro-life bill in years.”

The lopsided votes on the five bills were a departure from the days when Democrats controlled the state Senate and pro-life bills died in committee.

Elections have consequences.

News

Some examples of some very direct speech from politicians

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A collection of very strange said by normally reticent and taciturn politicians.

Education in New Jersey

New Jersey is the biggest educational debacle in the entire USA.

Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey takes on the teacher unions. (H/T Hot Air)

He then opened the floor to questions. A few were softballs, including the declaration by Clara Nebot of Bergenfield that Christie is “a god” to her relatives in Florida.

But borough teacher Rita Wilson, a Kearny resident, argued that if she were paid $3 an hour for the 30 children in her class, she’d be earning $83,000, and she makes nothing near that.

“You’re getting more than that if you include the cost of your benefits,” Christie interrupted.

When Wilson, who has a master’s degree, said she was not being compensated for her education and experience, Christie said:

“Well, you know then that you don’t have to do it.” Some in the audience applauded…

“Your union said that is the greatest assault on public education in the history of the state,” Christie said. “That’s why the union has no credibility, stupid statements like that.”

Holy snark! Can you even say that? I don’t think politicians can even talk like that. Except he did.

If some of these unionized teachers think they are so highly qualified as to be paid top dollar for producing no results, then why don’t they find a real job in the private sector – where people actually have to produce to turn a profit? Unless parents have a choice, there is no guarantee that public school teachers are worth a dime. No one is choosing to buy their product, they are forced to buy it. Let parents choose schools, then we’ll find out how good some of these unionized public school teachers really are. The good ones should even be paid more.

Alabama campaign advertisements

Now let’s look at some campaign ads running in Alabama. I’ll bet my Canadian and British readers have never seen anything like this before. Better sit down before you watch these – because they are going to seriously rock your world.

National Security

Rick Barber is running in Alabama. (H/T Hot Air)

US marines are very direct.

Tort Reform

Tim James is running for Governor in Alabama. (H/T Hot Air)

Nuisance lawsuits kill businesses and raise unemployment.

Oklahoma state Senate is pro-life

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, the Republicans in the state Senate overrode the veto of pro-life laws by the pro-abortion Democrat Governor.

Oklahoma lawmakers have won yet another face-off with pro-abortion Democratic Gov. Brad Henry, after the state Senate overrode the governor’s veto of an enhanced abortion statistics reporting law on Tuesday.

The stakes were riding high for pro-life advocates. The Oklahoma House of Representatives on late Monday afternoon overwhelmingly overruled Henry’s third veto this year of Oklahoma pro-life legislation, by an 84–13 margin. But while the House had votes to spare to reach its two-thirds veto-proof majority, the Senate could not afford to lose one of the thirty-two members that voted for the bill in the first round, in their override attempt.

…the Senate joined the House and voted 33 – 15 to override the pro-abortion veto, actually gaining pro-life advocates one more vote.

Seriously, I would love to live in northern Texas or northern Alabama. Or Oklahoma as a third choice, because why did they elect a pro-abortion Democrat for Governor? Does anyone know the story there? Was it an April Fool prank gone awry? Was it a dare?