FOLEY, Ala. — It’s noteworthy when a presidential candidate stumps in Baldwin County. Perhaps it’s moreso when that candidate is the only Alabama presidential candidate. Yet, such was the case this week.

Dr. Hugh Cort’s name is the first to appear on the Alabama Republican Presidential Preference Ballot, all the more significant since many of the names that follow his on the ballot have already fallen by the wayside in this presidential year. Those names include Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani.

Cort, a Birmingham psychiatrist, was in Foley on Tuesday talking to people and handing out brochures. His entourage was his brother, Charles, from Spanish Fort.

That some Republicans who have given up the political quest for the White House might actually get more votes on Feb. 5 than the 56-year-old Cort doesn’t bother the candidate, although he’s quick to say he’s in the race to win. For Cort, however, it’s about the message.

“My whole purpose isn’t the votes. … The main thing is to get my message out,” said Cort during an interview on Tuesday.

An integral part of that message is as blunt and sobering as Cort’s self-description, namely, counter-terrorism expert.

“I was living life as a happy psychiatrist until 9/11 happened and, like all of us, I was horrified,” he said.

According to him, he started going to counter-terrorism conferences after 9/11 and made important connections with the likes of retired generals Tom McInerney and Paul Vallely, military analysts for Fox News, journalists such as Fred Barnes and Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard, and Dr. Paul Williams, who has written four books on Osama bin Laden.

In 2004 Cort published his own book on the subject of terrorism: “Saddam’s Attacks On America: 1993; September 11, 2001; and The Anthrax Attacks.” The title leaves little doubt that Cort believes a “clear link” existed between Saddham Hussein, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, the destruction of the World Trade Center and attack on the Pentagon in 2001, and the anthrax letters of October 2001.

“I’m not a politician and I say that’s a good thing because the politicians have let us down in the war on terror,” said Cort, who believes evidence exists that Osama bin Laden is planning new attacks on America and, in his opinion, the FBI is falling down on the job the way it did with 9/11.

What Cort and others believe might be in store for America has been referred to as the “American Hiroshima” or a “nuclear hailstorm.” The premise is based on alleged evidence that bin Laden may have obtained 20 “suitcase” nuclear bombs through the upheaval that resulted when the former Soviet Union fell. It’s further alleged that those devices have already been smuggled across the Mexican border to be used against 10 American cities — New York City and Washington, D.C., among them.

“We’re trying to get the FBI to search mosques in Washington and New York where we think Osama might be hiding suitcase nukes,” Cort said, adding that he and others don’t believe that search will ever take place.

Cort said he is the only presidential candidate who can stop the “American Hiroshima.”

“The other candidates are clueless about it,” he said.

Cort is quick to point out that he is not a “one issue candidate.” He is tough on illegal immigration, he said, citing a litany of facts in connection with illegal aliens: They commit 9,000 murders a year in America; they have committed over a million sex crimes over the last 10 years; and they make up 30 percent of the prison population.

Noting that he is a lifelong Republican and member of the President’s Club of the Republican National Committee, Cort said he is big on balancing the budget.

“I’m shocked and horrified the way the Republicans, when they were in charge two years ago, spent like drunken sailors, except drunken sailors spend their own money.”

If elected president, Cort said he will veto every “pork spending bill … until pork is dead.” He will, however, increase funding for the military.

Cort said he has five questions to ask every American: Do you want to stop abortions, homosexual marriage, get back to God and get victory over Islamic terrorists who want to destroy America? Do you want to stop Osama’s coming attack against America? Do you want to win the war in Iraq? Do you want to stop Iran from getting nukes and killing over 200 million people? Do you want to win the war on terror?

A “yes” answer to those questions will hopefully result in votes for him, Cort said.

Should he not win the Republican nomination, who would he support? The answer is former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Cort called a Huckabee-John McCain ticket a “sweet” one, although he has some reservations about McCain, who voted against a federal marriage amendment and is, in Cort’s opinion, weak on immigration. He likes McCain’s military experience, however, and the fact the Arizona senator wants to win the war in Iraq.

Cort said Republican Alan Keyes - a “great guy” - is probably closest to him on issues such as abortion, pro-marriage and “back to God.”

Asked for opinions of other candidates, Cort said the following:

Hillary Clinton: “disaster for America.” He called Clinton and husband Bill the “biggest traitors in history.”

Sen. Barak Obama: “fluff and hot air.”

Mayor Rudy Giuliani: the “goat of 9/11.”

Gov. Mitt Romney: “total flipflopper.” Cort called Mormonism, Romney’s religion, a “cult.”

While Cort dedicated his 2004 book to a number of people, one of those was President George W. Bush. Today, however, Cort is of the opinion Bush “let us down” after the first four years in office. He said the president and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld failed to conduct the Iraq war correctly. “A huge disappointment,” he calls the president, and said should bin Laden’s “nuclear hailstrorm” ever occur on American soil, Bush will be to blame.

“When (the attacks) happen, I’ll rest knowing I did everything in my power to prevent it. … I’m doing this for America. Hugh Cort is not important.”

While Cort wouldn’t say how much he has spent on his campaign, he did say he has spent half of his life savings - “a considerable amount of money.”

Asked about his strong religious convictions and whether he sees the Middle East conflict as Biblical prophesy being fulfilled, Cort said, “Yes, absolutely. This could be the end of times coming.

“I hate to be like Dr. Doom or whatever, but if we don’t bring attention to it, it’s going to happen,” he said of another attack against America, this one possibly nuclear.

Cort estimates that his message has reached 30 million people through blogs, television, newspapers and such.

“I think we’ve done our job to warn America, which is what God put on my heart to do,” Cort said.

For Cort, the most disappointing aspect in running for president has been exclusion from the televised debates, which severely cuts down on name recognition, he said.

When the presidential race is over, should he not win the Republican nomination, Cort said the paperwork is already in the works for establishment of a non-profit counter-terrorism foundation, the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Research and Policy.

But for this week Cort said it’s 1938 all over again. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Hitler and he (Cort) is Winston Churchill. Only Cort said whereas Churchill begged America before World War II to stop Hitler before he “got so big” and 62 million people died, he’s advocating taking out Iran’s 24 nuclear sites, Ahmadinejad and the mullah’s (teacher of religious law) headquarters with precision bombing.

That way, 80 percent of the War on Terror will be won and 80 percent of the world’s terror attacks stopped and 200 million lives will be saved, according to Cort. It’s a plan advocated by Gen. McInerney, who has already agreed to be an honorary board member of the American Foundation for Counter-Terrorism Research and Policy.