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Missouri
If history is guide, path to White House is through Missouri
by Michael Mathes
2 hours, 12 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) - With the 2008 presidential election boiling down to a handful of battleground states, the tightest race of all has emerged
in Missouri, the most accurate political bellwether state in US history.
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The campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain are taking a no-holds-barred approach to the midwestern "Show Me" state, and with good reason;
Missourians have voted for the presidential winner in all but one election since 1904.
With such imposing history dictating outsized attention for the state, Republican McCain made two stops in Missouri in late September while Democrat
Obama earlier launched a bus tour of the state's Republican stronghold southwest.
Officials from both parties concede the campaigns are pouring resources into the state in a mad dash for Missouri's 11 electoral votes.
The candidates have blitzed the state with political ads, with Obama reportedly spending six million dollars on media advertising and McCain close on
his heels with 5.5 million.
Missouri's vote is on a knife edge, and recent major polls have toggled back and forth; Thursday's average of recent polls by independent website
Realclearpolitics.com shows McCain at 47.8 percent and Obama at 47.4 in Missouri. The previous day it was Obama 47.8, McCain 47.5.
"Missouri is in the middle of the country geographically but also the center of the country politically," Washington University history professor
Peter Kastor said.
"It is a state where various regional political cultures all exist."
That could favor Obama, Kastor said, as he has the passionate oratory skills of the deep South combined with a hard-driven persona of a cosmopolitan
Northeasterner.
But he will have to overcome latent racism among rural whites, an element more than one expert described as an "unknown quantity" in Missouri
particularly because residents have seen so few black candidates run for state or national office.
The state looms especially large for the Republicans, both parties agree, as they trail in most of the other swing states including Florida, Ohio and
Virginia.
"Senator McCain has to win Missouri to win the White House. So there is a strong commitment from the McCain-Palin campaign to make sure that we
deliver Missouri for that ticket," said Jared Craighead, executive director of the state's Republican Party.
Earlier this month McCain pulled resources out of Michigan, essentially conceding it to Obama. Officials in both parties expect those resources to be
shifted to Missouri.
The Obama campaign has opened 40 field offices across the state, with more than 100 paid staffers -- "an unprecedented commitment to Missouri," said
Jack Cardetti, communications director of the Missouri Democratic Party.
Cardetti said a massive voter registration movement has put 175,000 new voters on the rolls this year, a considerable amount in a state of nearly six
million people.
"If the same amount of voters come out and vote the same way (as in 2004, when George W. Bush won by seven percent in Missouri) the Democrats lose,"
he said.
New voters tend to be youths and minorities, two demographics that traditionally vote Democratic.
Missouri is the mean center of the US population.
The largest city St. Louis, known as the "Gateway to the West," draws its cultural tenor from states to the east, while Missouri's second urban
center, Kansas City, on the state's western border, is in the sphere of the West.
Southern Missouri is part of the evangelical Bible belt, and just below that is the conservative deep South; to the north are the Great Plains where
farmers vote Democratic more often than their southern counterparts.
While experts say residents are going to be voting on pocketbook issues in November -- the economy, jobs, taxes and energy -- Missourians are deeply
suspicious of politicians seeking to take away their guns. Abortion rights remain a hot-button issue as well.
-- Missouri pros for McCain: The state has recently leaned Republican, and its substantial rural population's social conservatives may be drawn to
polls in large numbers by McCain's addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket.
-- Missouri pros for Obama: A string of recent elections and polls for state races have indicated tilt towards Democrats. Massive voter registration
campaign this year likely to favor Obama.
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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CR83
Moderator
Posts: 5221
Registered: 1-23-2004
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Fuck Yeah! Go MO!!!! God Damn I love my state. Wait, that means we are to blame for George W. Bush. Shit...
Did you also know we are known as "the cave state" because of the number of caves we have? Rad huh?
Yeah, the day after the VP "debate" they shut down the highway for their motorcades. Fucked things up in my neck of the woods.
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clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
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Registered: 9-19-2004
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Mood: Sick Of It All, Youth Of Today
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I am in DEMOINES IOWA right now. Driving to Las Vegas
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
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defstarsteve
Posting Freak
Posts: 3505
Registered: 11-19-2003
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hey man vegas is only like 4 hours away keep driving...
and I hated living in Missouri...
worst place I Have ever lived
no offense CR83 I liked St. Louis everytime we went up
but the rest of the state is a backward cess-pool of white trash idiots
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CR83
Moderator
Posts: 5221
Registered: 1-23-2004
Location: STL!
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Mood: Harm's Way
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| Quote: | Originally posted by defstarsteve
hey man vegas is only like 4 hours away keep driving...
and I hated living in Missouri...
worst place I Have ever lived
no offense CR83 I liked St. Louis everytime we went up
but the rest of the state is a backward cess-pool of white trash idiots |
You are so right dude. Soooo many parts are just no good.
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Barnesey
Member
Posts: 286
Registered: 3-30-2005
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by CR83
| Quote: | Originally posted by defstarsteve
hey man vegas is only like 4 hours away keep driving...
and I hated living in Missouri...
worst place I Have ever lived
no offense CR83 I liked St. Louis everytime we went up
but the rest of the state is a backward cess-pool of white trash idiots |
You are so right dude. Soooo many parts are just no good. |
My old lady keeps on trying to get me to move back there. St. Louis is a fucking shit hole. I love alot about it but the bad outweighs the good with
me.
Live Fast Die Young
Push It To The Limit \'Til The Coffin Calls
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CR83
Moderator
Posts: 5221
Registered: 1-23-2004
Location: STL!
Member Is Offline
Mood: Harm's Way
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Barnsey, come home!
Totally kidding dude. Like any city, there's shit and then there's places with maybe a little less shit.
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