I grew up in Alabama but have lived in Tennessee for the past 30 years. If you’ve never lived in both Alabama and Tennessee, you may wonder how the states are different. Earlier today, when I surfed to the joint-news-website of the Birmingham News, Huntsville Times and Mobile Press-Register, AL.com, to look for some analysis of the historic primary election yesterday, I was greeted by this front page.

At first, I thought I must have landed on the sports page, but no, that’s the front page of the entire news website. Tornados in northern Alabama and Alabama voters nominating an African-American for President get below-the-fold treatment compared to the real story of the day: NCAA National Football Signing Day.

Last night in his post-election speech, Mike Huckabee (who, if you live in Alabama and may have missed it due to coverage of signing day, won the state’s Republican presidential primary) spent two or three minutes running through SEC football references. If you thought he won Alabama because he’s an evangelical Southern Baptist, well, think again. He won because he is an evangelical SEC football fan.

In Alabama, where I grew up, the most dominant religion is football. More important than who people select to be President of the United States is what college a high school football standout has selected. More important than the wind speed of killer tornados is the 40-yard sprint speed of a promising wide receiver.

The difference in Alabama and Tennessee? In Tennessee, we’re fundamentalist football fans, but perhaps not quite as evangelical.

(Note: The three newspapers are owned by Advanced Media, owner of CondeNast and American Business Journals. In other words, they know their audience.)

Nashville is Talking’s Christian Grantham has a collection of links to posts by area bloggers regarding the tornados that passed through the area last night. Also, as I typically read his posts via an RSS newsreader and not on the site, this is the first time I’ve noticed the site’s “Nashville Tweets” feature that aggregates Twitter posts from area users of the service. Looks like something fun, but last night, it also served as very helpful service in aggregating messages posted on Twitter (tweets) directly related to a breaking disaster story, something I’ve written about before and that others with the resources and know-how to make it happen are doing.

Remember: Seeing the opportunity of repurposing toys into something that can save lives starts with playing with toys.

Sidenote: Thanks to those who have emailed and “messaged” me regarding the bad weather here. Those of us at Hammock were fortunate to miss any direct damage from the storms.

Bonus link: On his Hammock “People Page,” Bill Hudgins writes about the tornado that touched down in his hometown of Gallatin last night — and recalls a similar experience two years ago that he wrote about on this weblog.

I’ll be adding to this post throughout the day as I run across posts and articles that I think helped me understand exactly what happened yesterday:

Slate.com: Did Obama or Clinton win Super Tuesday? by John Dickerson. Quote: “In a political year during which the conventional wisdom has taken beating after beating, perhaps no assumption has been made more obsolete than the idea that the front-loaded primary system would foist an early winner on the American people.”

The New Republic: Who Won Super Tuesday? by John Judis. Quote: “Hillary Clinton won the big states she had to win, and arrested Barack Obama’s momentum, but she is going to have problems with white male voters. Obama is having trouble with white working-class voters and Latinos.”

Huffington Post: Analysis: Clinton and Obama Start Anew. Quote: “The grand spectacle of Super Tuesday’s coast-to-coast nominating contests marked a turning point in the Democratic presidential contest from euphoric election night victories to painstaking delegate counting.”

CampaignDairies.com: Mark your calendars: The Dem race has no end in sight. Quote: “As of yesterday, there was an end in sight; now, no one knows how long this could last and if there are plausible scenarios in which the nomination is settled prior to the convention.

Politico.com: Five reasons Hillary should be worried, by Jim VandelHei and Mike Allen. Quote - “It figures to be another month before Clinton hits a stretch of states — places like Ohio and Pennsylvania — where she will be strongly favored to win. So it couldn’t be any clearer as to why the supposedly inevitable candidacy is anything but — even when she’s supposedly winning..”

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