Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: No contest in Alabama

  The November 6th Presidential Election is less than four weeks away. It will not be very close or interesting here in the Heart of Dixie. The only question to be decided is the margin by which Mitt Romney will slaughter Barack Obama in the state.

  It was ugly four years ago. McCain beat Obama 64 to 36 in 2008. My guess is that it will be by about the same numbers this year. That, my friends, is what you call a landslide. In some corners it can be referred to as a shellacking.

Sam Fulwood III: Obama at the DNC: How different is America from what he hoped for in 2004?

  Almost immediately after then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama stepped away from the podium at Boston’s Fleet Center during the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the pundits predicted his brilliant keynote speech would catapult him into a successful run for president of the United States.

  As it turned out, they were prescient. Now, eight years later, President Obama returns to the podium tonight to deliver yet another speech at the Democratic National Convention. In the intervening eight years, the nation is so much different and, in many ways, not so changed at all.

  This is a story about then and now. It begins with boundless optimism, born of the rosy afterglow following Obama’s 2004 speech that some wanted to believe heralded a post-racial period in American history. Of course, that’s not how the story has unfolded. Indeed, since that speech, nothing about Obama’s time on the national stage has suggested a narrowing of racial concerns in the nation.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Keeping it red

  As we enter the dog days of summer, the race for president presses onward at a steady pace. It will be a close contest in the fall. Barack Obama won four years ago because of the economy and if he loses in November it will be due to the economy.

  It will not be a contest here in the Heart of Dixie. Obama heading the ticket will drive the final nail in the coffin of the Democratic Party in Alabama.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Is Rubio the ticket?

  Most of our modern presidents have been given two terms. The mindset of not changing horses mid-stream prevails. One of the glaring exceptions was the 1992 upset of George Bush, Sr. by Bill Clinton. It was the economy that caused Bush’s demise, not his underachievement. The economic state of the nation drives the vote of most Americans for the presidency.

  When Bill Clinton set sail to derail Bush’s quest for a second term it was well known that he had two pronounced problems. First of all, it was common knowledge in political circles that he had a bimbo problem. As Governor of Arkansas he allegedly had innumerable extramarital affairs. Most of these dalliances were with unsavory women who were likely to kiss and tell. His unbridled and insatiable sexual appetite was likely to continue as he moved into even greener pastures on the national campaign stage.

Ian M. MacIsaac: Mitt's mysterious money: The growing controversy around Governor Romney's shadowy finances

  Mitt Romney loves his money. He loves it so much he does not want to pay taxes on it, keep it in the United States where it might be monitored by the IRS, or even allow the public to know how much of it he has (estimates hover around $250 million).

  He refused to release his tax returns during the 2008 campaign, and released them this time around only after being politically hammered into doing so by his fellow Republican candidates, namely Rick Santorum.

  And, despite having officially retired from the business world in 1999, Romney still makes a heaping pile: $42.5 million in income in 2010-2011, with taxes of only $6.2 million--below 15 percent taxation, just over half of the overall rate paid by the average American.