» Tony Petersen

After months of the press convulsing over who would emerge as the conservative alternative to “Massachusetts Moderate” Mitt Romney — Michele Bachmann! Rick Perry! Herman Cain! Newt Gingrich! — it appears that the narrative for the race for the Republican nomination has finally settled.

Growing up, I considered myself an amateur Bracketologist. Every March, I would scrupulously (some would say anally) go through the NCAA Tournament bracket, picking what my upset picks were, which teams would make the Final Four and which team would win it all.

When Dr. Rodney Anderson failed to show up to consecutive classes, part of me knew something had to be wrong. Dr. Anderson, whom my friends and I, when speaking of him, affectionately called Rodney, just did not miss class.

While the media badger candidates with questions on contraception, birth control and the harsh opinions of a talk-radio provocateur, the Middle East is looking like it will be the most important issue of the next presidential term of whoever is elected.

I may not like what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. This saying is often attributed to Voltaire, but it has developed into an axiom of democracy. Freedom of speech is now one of the pillars of democratic government.

Political sex scandals, it seems, are always in the news. Last weekend, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu, known as a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, confirmed that he was gay after shirtless photos of him appeared on a homosexual dating website.

Is the Republican Party a racist political party? I said no; some of our readers said yes. Here are some of your responses, with some extra commentary by me.

“The issue of race and American politics,” Glenn Thrush and Donovan Slack wrote in a recent Politico article, “never far beneath the surface during Barack Obama’s historic 2008 campaign, is making a loud, overt and surprisingly early appearance in the 2012 presidential race.” What evidence do Thrush and Slack present to make their case?

This week, Chris Cillizza, a Washington Post reporter who runs a popular political blog, “The Fix,” argued, along with Aaron Blake, that Barack Obama is the most partisan president ever.