NYT: With Bush Advancing, Missouri May Be a Battleground All but Conquered

[quaoar]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/30/politics/campaign/30missouri.html?adxnnl=1&oref=login&adxnnlx=1096517560-saVx7CFxJR7ThLVLUS/NUA

By R. W. APPLE Jr.
Published: September 30, 2004

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 29 - Is Missouri a swing state that has already swung? So it seems to many people here on the eve of the first presidential debate.

John Kerry has not visited the state in nearly three weeks and may not be back, local Democrats say, until the second debate, scheduled for Oct. 8 at Washington University in St. Louis. This is no accident of scheduling.

Its 11 electoral votes are certainly a prize worth winning, and Missouri was listed as a battleground state by both parties as the campaign began. It has symbolic significance as well. In every presidential election over the last century, with the single exception of 1956, Missouri has gone with the winner, usually by a margin closely approximating the national figure.

< snip >

But ever since the Kerry strategists decided to omit Missouri from their major advertising purchase after the Republican convention, the intensity of combat has diminished. Though the reasons for the change in strategy are not clear, politicians of both parties in Missouri took it to mean that Mr. Kerry's advisers thought it unlikely he could prevail here.

[fearnobush]

1. If true, sorry Missouri but at least you won't be seeing the Chimp

much ether. As far the 1956 winner thing, they said the same thing about Delaware in 2000, ohh thats right, Gore won delaware so, don't get too spooked by the must win state thing. And don't stop fighting.

[STL_Social_Democrat]

2. taken over by fundies

Rural Missouri voters are on par with the right wing christian fundamentalists and racists of Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and the like. Missouri has become a very difficult state for a liberal or progressive democrat to win. If a democrat wants to energize their base here they are written off as too liberal for "the heartland". When a candidate follows the course of Jean Carnahan's 2002 Senate race by being an ass kissing Bush clone, the base becomes disgusted and won't turn out. Missouri has not elected a democrat to a full 6 year senate term in over 20 years. That should tell us something.

Just next door in Illinois there are moderates in both parties. In contrast,Missouri has the GOP and very socially conservative democrats who have little or no party loyalty. The St.Louis Post Dispatch ran a story Wednesday that noted, Kerry's best and only chance to win Missouri lies in getting 90,000 votes in the city of St.Louis. The story went on to state however that number will be very difficult because of catholic democrats in south st.louis defecting to * because of abortion.

[saracat]

3. Baloney. If that is the case.

Most American Catholics don't give a rats ass a about abortion. That is for fundies and some extremist Catholics!

[ZenLefty]

4. I just visited those places.

St. Louis seemed to have a very strong support for Kerry, judging by the yard signs and bumper stickers we saw. We also visited parts of rural Missouri - the parts that look like the Amazon basin only with riding lawnmowers and cattle. You could tell that the rural parts were staunchly conservative, living in this factless bubble of fox news and rush limbaugh, but there was still Kerry support even out there. I don't know if Missouri will vote Democrat in this next election, but I left it with the impression that it was worth fighting for, and that Kerry had more support there than one might expect from looking at the polls.

[ochazuke]

5. Only four points down in the latest poll

(by Rasmussen)

Rural Mo will definately go for the Chimp, but with a big GOTV in K.C. and St. Louis, we can fight to a near tie. It depends on how the overall, national situation goes.

[Ravenseye]

7. I don't understand...

...people who vote because of Abortion.

Abortion is legal. They should be doing things to help provide alternatives to abortion, instead of trying to get it banned entirely.

On top of that, who are these people who have Abortion so high up on their list that it trumps everything else from foreign policy to the environment, to the economy etc?

[progressivebydesign]

6. Where's Gephardt?

DId he get all pissy and refuse to help Kerry????? He's been extremely quiet!!

[goodboy]

8. That's why Kerry should never have taken his ads off the air, and

Gephardt should be stumping the shit outta MO for Kerry.

*sigh* Repukes win these contests because they don't give up.

[mdbeliever]

9. Let the repugs think so

they are getting overconfident and their GOTV will fail. Kerry can still win big MO.