Consultants in both parties say it's increasingly possible the two major party presidential candidates will not campaign heavily in the Show-Me State next fall. After nearly a century as a so-called "bellwether" state whose votes reflected national trends, Missouri is now believed to lean Republican, at least on the presidential level, regardless of the candidates.
In 2008, John McCain beat Barack Obama in Missouri by fewer than 4,000 votes out of more than 2.9 million cast.
No fewer than three "third party" candidates (Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin) comfortably covered that "balance of power."
Missouri may get ignored by one or both candidates if the election's an obvious national blowout/landslide, but probably not even then -- it's centrally located and easy to drop in on en route between other campaign states, so it's easy to get into the fight here on the cheap, after which the thing tends to snowball.
Certainly if an election is tight enough nation-wide for 10 electoral votes to possibly be make or break, they'll be here slugging it out.
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