Review of the Week: February 26th - March 3rd

• Romney Wins Well Before Super Tuesday
• Contraception Takes Another Misogynistic Turn
• 3 Dead in Ohio School Shooting
• Severe Weather Takes Lives Across Midwest and South

Romney Sets Up Strong Platform for Super Tuesday

Mitt Romney made important gains in four elections this week, winning in Michigan, Arizona , Wyoming and Washington. His successes solidified the gains he made in the opinion polls over Rick Santorum last week, and he now has a 14 point lead in the latest Gallup poll.

The week could hardly have gone better for Romney, as we move towards the ten contests on Super Tuesday this week. Romney is certain to win Virginia, as Santorum and Newt Gingrich failed to make the ballot in that state, and Ron Paul is unable to mount a challenge. The former Governor of Pennsylvania is also leading in Vermont and seems set to win the most votes next week.

However, Santorum leads well in Tennessee and Oklahoma, but narrowly in Ohio, whilst Gingrich will comfortably win his home state of Georgia, thus keeping his campaign alive. There will also be contests in Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

Super Tuesday is likely to be a good night for Mitt Romney, but with Gingrich set to claim large numbers of delegates in Georgia, and Santorum maybe winning that crucial state of Ohio, it will not be the moment of ultimate triumph. It is increasingly possible that those reluctant to be Romney-ites will continue to refuse to settle for him and force a hung convention, where no candidate has enough delegates to become the nominee.

Limbaugh Controversy in Contraception Debate

Right wing, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has attracted criticism from right across the political spectrum for calling a young feminist a “slut”, and other comments he has made in the past week concerning her and other feminists, in the latest unpleasant and misogynistic turn in the contraception debate.

Sandra Fluke, who is currently a law student at Georgetown, eventually gave evidence to Congress on the matter of funding for contraception, which has been a hot-topic in recent weeks, despite having initially been denied the right to do so. Having supported President Obama’s policy of all women being provided with cover for contraception by their employers, Limbaugh said that what Fluke wanted was for America to pay for her sexual activities: "It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex … She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”

Having attracted outrage and controversy, Limbaugh decided not to track back but to further inflame. He said that he would “buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want”, and continued by saying "So Miss Fluke and the rest of you femi-nazis, here's the deal," he said. "If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

President Obama called Ms Fluke, and said that her parents should be “proud” of her, an act which Limbaugh ridiculed. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, House Speaker John Boehner and Ron Paul are all Republicans who have condemned the comments, though right-wing Fox News host Bill O’Reilly concurred with Limbaugh’s arguments, whilst not mentioning the radio host.

A “Boycott Limbaugh” campaign has quickly gathered pace, and many companies have withdrawn their advertising from his show.
Late on Saturday, Limbaugh finally apologised saying that he had not meant "a personal attack" on Ms Fluke.

Gunman Brings Tragedy to Ohio

Monday morning at the Chardon High School saw another tragic school shooting, which resulted in the death of 16 year-old Daniel Parmertor and two others. The gunman, T.J. Lane, hospitalised two other students, whilst a sixth received minor injuries.

Lane has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault.

The school reopened on Friday, with teachers having been given very swift training in how to give children support.

Tornadoes Rage Across the States

At least 36 people are dead after Tornadoes tore apart the large areas in Ohio, Alabama, Indiana and Kentucky. 90 tornadoes and 700 severe weather events were reported on Friday, and an unknown number of people are missing. As of Saturday afternoon, sections of Florida and Georgia were still under storm warning

Articles of the Week

CNN’s Bill Bennett believes that Santorum’s campaign is in fairly good health

But, The Daily Beast’s Michael Medved believes that a Santorum candidacy is the GOP’s greatest fear

CNN’s Jeanne Sahadi can see another fight over the debt ceiling on the horizon