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Santorum’s Southern Sweep Sets Up Long Showdown With Romney

Rick Santorum eked out a pair of pivotal victories in the Deep South on Tuesday night, winning hard-fought battles in Alabama and Mississippi that cement his standing as Mitt Romney’s chief challenger and could push Newt Gingrich out of the race.

Southern Super Tuesday in Pictures

David Goldman / AP

Republican voters in Alabama and Mississippi cast their ballots in Republican presidential primaries on Tuesday.

Romney Down South: Can Mitt Really Win Over Conservatives in Dixie?

Evan Vucci / AP

“I’m learning to say ‘y’all’ and I like grits,” Mitt Romney recently told a crowd in Pascagoula, Mississippi. “Strange things are happening to me.” But has the Boston private equity executive turned Republican technocrat turned presidential front-runner, whom the latest polls shows running even with Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in Tuesday’s southern primary states, [...]

Newt Gingrich Probably Can’t Win, but That Doesn’t Mean He’s Going Anywhere

Marianne Todd / Getty Images

There are two realities on the campaign trail: the one visible to dispassionate observers, and the reality the candidate inhabits. In Newt Gingrich’s bubble, Super Tuesday was a triumph: the benchmark he set was to win his home state, and he coasted to victory. Remove the rose-colored glasses and the landscape looks uglier. Gingrich won [...]

Barbour ‘At Peace’ with Pardons, but Scandal Rages On

Jackson, Mississippi Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour on Friday defended more than 200 pardons he issued during his final days in office, 41 of which he gave to convicted murderers, sex offenders and child molesters. “Mississippians are mostly Christians,” Barbour said in a lengthy statement, which he read at a Jackson press conference on Friday. [...]

Haley Barbour’s Pardons: Why No One in Mississippi Is in a Forgiving Mood

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Jackson, Mississippi The red, white and blue bunting is still up, whipping in the winter winds on the temporary platform in front of Mississippi’s state capitol. Two days ago, a new governor was sworn in here. But the satellite trucks that still ring the capitol aren’t interested in the new executive; they’re still focused on [...]

A Banner Night for Democrats as High-Profile Ballot Initiatives Go Blue

Eric Albrecht / Columbus Dispatch / AP

In a hard-won victory for Democrats and their labor-union allies, Ohioans decisively rejected the state’s collective-bargaining law on Tuesday night, repealing Republican Governor John Kasich’s signature legislation in a referendum that could reverberate into 2012.

High Stakes in Ohio, Mississippi and Virginia as Voters Head to the Polls

Tony Dejak / AP

The narrative arc you’re likely to hear on this Tuesday in early November is that today begins the yearlong countdown to the 2012 presidential contest. But Tuesday’s slate of off-year elections and ballot measures is laden with its own share of drama. From Maine to Washington, voters in seven states will head to the polls [...]

Clichés, Levees and Federal Funds

As Washington debates Medicare, taxes, deficits and the future of the budget, it’s become a cliché to say that Americans like big government but don’t like to pay for it.  Most clichés are true. And as the swollen Mississippi River barrels south toward New Orleans, you can see a stark example of that in the [...]

RE: Barbour’s Baggage

As Adam notes, if Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour decides to run for president, he’ll come with a lot of baggage. Some of it will be of his own making. A few Barbour’s comments in the story Adam cites – a profile of Barbour in the Weekly Standard by Andrew Ferguson – are coming back to [...]