GOP hopefuls dig in before pivotal contests
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Sunday nudged rival Newt Gingrich to step aside, arguing a head-to-head contest between himself and Mitt Romney should “occur sooner rather than later.” A defiant Gingrich predicted victories in Tuesday’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi and called Romney the weakest Republican front-runner in nearly a century.
Santorum and Gingrich were campaigning hard two days before what has become a potentially decisive Southern showdown for the GOP field.
Losing Alabama and Mississippi would effectively spell the end for Gingrich, who has banked his waning prospects on an all-Southern strategy. The former House speaker’s lone primary wins have been in South Carolina and Georgia, a state he represented in Congress for 20 years.
A win for Romney in Alabama, where polling shows a tight contest between Romney, Gingrich and Santorum, could all but bring the GOP nominating contest to a close. The former Massachusetts governor has built a substantial delegate lead against his rivals but has failed so far to win a state in the deep South, home to the Republican Party’s most conservative voters.
Santorum, who has battled to be Romney’s chief conservative foe, burnished his standing with a decisive win in Saturday’s caucuses in Kansas. The former Pennsylvania senator also carried contests last week in Oklahoma and Tennessee, giving him a toehold in the South.
International push to end Syria crisis stalls
BEIRUT — An international push to end Syria’s conflict stalled Sunday as U.N. envoy Kofi Annan left Damascus without a cease-fire and President Bashar Assad’s forces pounded opposition areas and clashed with rebels throughout the country.
Western and Arab powers are struggling for ways to stem the bloodshed in the year-old conflict while both the regime and the opposition reject dialogue. Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan appeared to make little progress during two visits with Assad during his first trip to Syria as the joint U.N.-Arab League envoy.
Annan was seeking an immediate cease-fire to allow for humanitarian aid and the start of a dialogue between all parties on a political solution. After meeting with Assad on Sunday, Annan said he had presented steps to ease the crisis, but gave no details.
“Once it’s agreed, it will help launch the process and help end the crisis on the ground,” he told reporters. He called for “reforms that will create a strong foundation for a democratic Syria a peaceful, stable, pluralistic and prosperous society, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights.”
But he said a cease-fire must come first.
If Obama’s health law survives Supreme Court, it will take nearly a decade to put into effect
WASHINGTON It took only a year to set up Medicare. But if President Barack Obama’s health care law survives Supreme Court scrutiny, it will be nearly a decade before all its major pieces are in place.
And that means even if Obama is re-elected, he won’t be in office to oversee completion of his signature domestic policy accomplishment, assuming Republicans don’t succeed in repealing it.
The law’s carefully orchestrated phase-in is evidence of what’s at stake in the Supreme Court deliberations that start March 26.
The Affordable Care Act gradually reorganizes one-sixth of the U.S. economy to cover most of the nation’s 50 million uninsured, while simultaneously trying to restrain costs and prevent disruptions to the majority already with coverage.
Despite the political rhetoric about what “Obamacare” is doing to the nation, only a fraction of the law is in effect.
By wire sources