The North Mobile Post

    Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Primary on Saturday night. The win adds yet another southern state to Santorum’s growing collection of wins. Santorum won Tennesse on Super Tuesday, and picked up wins in Mississippi and Alabama on March 13. He still trails front runner Mitt Romney in the overall delegate count.

    Romney failed to seriously challenge Santorum in Louisiana despite winning a few primaries since Santorum’s last wins in the South. Romney picked up wins in Hawaii, Illinois, and Puerto Rico since Santorum took Alabama and Mississippi. Tonight’s primary shows that Romney has still not convinced southern conservatives that he is the right candidate for them.

    The next state up for grabs is Wisconsin. Pundits are saying this could be make or break for Santorum. If he wins that state he might have a chance at preventing Romney from reaching 1,144 delegates, the number needed to clinch the nomination. If that happens there will be a brokered convention, where anything is possible. Santorum has narrowly lost the previous big mid-western contests in Ohio and Michigan. If Santorum loses Wisconsin, the math may be to great for him to overcome.

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    After a week of big media attention focused on both Alabama and Mississippi, the day of action has finally arrived. A highly competitive Republican presidential primary has brought candidates to states they never though they would have to actually contest. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were in Birmingham on Monday night speaking at the Alabama Theatre at an event sponsored by the Alabama GOP. Mitt Romney was also in Alabama today, campaigning at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mobile on his 65th birthday.

    The race is still very tight. A poll released Monday by Public Policy Polling had Romney leading with 31% of the vote, Newt in second with 30%, and Santorum in third with 29%. Romney has also been leading in Mississippi. A win in either state by Romney will likely be the nail in the coffin for his opponents. If Gingrich fails to win either state he is expected to face a lot of pressure to exit the race.

    If Romney is able to finally cement his status as the inevitable nominee, it would come at the perfect time. Recent polls show President Obama’s approval rating taking a slight dip lately due to surging gas prices. As the economy continues to improve the president’s approval is sure to go up. The GOP needs a nominee who can begin to take on the president now if they hope to truly challenge him in November.

    Those who plan to vote tomorrow need to remember to bring some form of identification with them. Acceptable forms of ID include your driver’s license, social security card, college ID, work ID, passport, hunting license, fishing license, or a utility bill with your address on it. If you are unsure of where you need to go to vote, check out http://alabamavotes.gov/ to find your polling station. This site will tell you where you need to go to vote, all the forms of ID that are acceptable, and just about anything else you need to know about voting.

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    Mitt Romney will become the latest Republican presidential candidate to swing by the state of Alabama on Monday. The former Massachusetts Governor will be at The Whistle Stop Cafe at 7:00 AM on Monday morning. The event will be televised on the Fox News program Fox and Friends.

    Romney is scheduled to eat breakfast and make a speech at the stop. Not to long ago it looked like Romney would be overlooking the Southern states as he coasted to victory. Proportional representation of delegates has forced the Republican front runner to compete and earn as many delegates as he can in as many states as he can.

    Despite his perceived weakness in the South, Romney is doing surprisingly well in Alabama and Mississippi. The race is extremely tight in Alabama with all three candidates within 3 points of each other. Romney is actually leading in Mississippi according to the latest polls. A win in either state would silence Romney’s critics that he claim he can’t win in the South and essentially lock up the nomination for him.

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    Mississippi is once again the state with the highest rate of obese people. Alabama follows closely behind at number 2. A person is considered obese when they have a body mass index higher than 30. BMI is based on your weight and height. The entire country is struggling with an obesity problem, but the South is where the problem is most prevalent. Unhealthy fried foods are a part of the culture in our part of the world and that is one reason our region has the worst obesity problems.

    First lady Michelle Obama has taken to fighting childhood obesity. She is pushing for healthier lunches in schools and getting kids more active. Former Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee is also speaking out about the obesity problem in this country.

    Officials in Mississippi are reporting that over the past year the state has a net loss of over 4,000 jobs. The private sector has actually done quite well by adding over 7,000 jobs during that same time frame. The loss of government jobs is what propelled the state to a net job loss. The government shed 11,000 jobs in the state.

    The problem Mississippi is having is similar to one that is gripping the nation. Employment numbers each month are tempered by losses in government jobs. While critics argue that cutting government jobs is good because it cuts government spending, they fail to realize that someone is still losing their job. That means less income taxes paid, less spending on consumers goods, and likely more aid that the government will have to supply to the newly unemployed person.

    The state and national budget deficits are big problems, but solving them will not help the economy directly. Government deficits simply do not affect a private businesses’s decision to hire new workers. A business will only hire a new worker when demand for their product or service is so great that they actually need a new worker. For this reason most economists have declared that cutting spending in the middle of a bad economy is a terrible idea.

    Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour believes the only way to defeat President Obama in the 2012 presidential election is with a united Republican Party. Barbour, and many other leaders in the GOP, worry that the rise of the Tea Party could actually backfire against Republicans if the candidate is a moderate. Members of the Tea Party are deeply conservative.

    Grumblings on the right are growing louder as Mitt Romney appears to be taking the lead in the Republican field. GOP leaders fear that members of the Tea Party will not line up behind Romney because he was at one time a Pro-Choice candidate, and he signed a health care bill into law very similar to the one President Obama signed. The health care law Romney signed featured an individual mandate requiring all citizens in Massachusetts to carry health insurance. Tea Party members are strongly against the individual mandate.

    The Republican Party is in a real bind. On the one hand, they want to tap into the grass roots movement of the Tea Party, but any candidate that will appease them is unlikely to stand a chance in the general election. On the other hand, the Republicans are unlikely to take back the White House without massive Tea Party support. The Republican nominating process will be very interesting in 2012.

    Daniel Wayne Hoven was on the run after holding two women captive and assaulting them in their own homes in Lucedale. He was arrested in Citronelle Sunday night around 7:00 PM. He will be charged with kidnapping, sexual battery, and burglary. Hoven was taken back to George County, Mississippi where he is awaiting his first appearance before a judge.

    A lightning strike on a power pool near soldier’s tents sent 77 Air Force Reserve cadets to the hospital on Wednesday. The accident occurred at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Reserves were scheduled to be at the Join Forces Training Center for two weeks.

    Two of the cadets had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. All of the soldiers were in stable condition and no one was seriously hurt. The accident happened around 2:00 PM.