If Democrat Barack Obama is to take Missouri, he must make in-roads into suburban and urban Missouri.
Public opinion polls indicate the race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain in Missouri has tightened. Obama’s Missouri State Director Buffy Wicks understands that for Obama to overtake McCain, he must do better in suburban Missouri and much better in rural Missouri.
Wicks says there is a misconception that Democrats don’t do well in rural communities, but that the Obama campaign doesn’t believe that is true. Perhaps, but the fact is that rural Missouri hasn’t been kind to the Democratic presidential ticket the last few cycles and while Obama did very well in St. Louis and Kansas City in the February presidential election, he lost badly to Hillary Clinton in outstate Missouri.
Wicks says Obama has the ground game to win in Missouri, more than 40 offices, plus volunteers knocking on doors, making calls, hosting house parties and spending time on college campuses. She believes that that ground attack combined with the air attack, commercials on radio and television, could win the state.
Public opinion polls indicate the economy has become the top issue in the campaign. With the financial market collapse and the Stock Market shaky, voters might be more receptive to the theme of change, reasons Wicks.