With the 2012 legislative session getting underway, I’ve spent most of my time on here discussing Alabama state politics. But on Tuesday, while attention in Montgomery was on the State of the State address, Rick Santorum was having a big night of his own, sweeping Tuesday’s Republican presidential contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

Just as we thought we had ourselves a two-man race, Santorum is making a run at the “not-Romney” mantle that Gingrich has most recently been carrying.

We have a long way to go as illustrated by the current delegate count:
Romney – 101
Gingrich – 32
Santorum – 17
Paul – 9
Note: It takes 1,144 delegates to win the nomination.

After the Florida primary, we did a quick projection for Alabama by using the Florida panhandle numbers which typically give a decent idea of what to expect in Alabama given its similar demographic makeup. You can take a look at what we found here.

Looking forward to the general election, Karl Rove released an interesting graph today that shows where Obama’s current numbers stand in comparison to other recent presidents in January going into their 4th year in office. I like looking at these type of graphs because they put things in good historical perspective. Details are below.