Economy Big Factor In Bellwether Missouri
For the series, "Final Battleground," the CBS Evening News is traveling to three key areas of the country - the South, the Midwest and the West - to hone in on the states that will decide this presidential election. Missouri is one state that could swing toward either Barack Obama or John McCain, CBS News anchor Katie Couric reports.
In every election since 1900 - except in 1956 - whoever won Missouri went on to the White House. No wonder both candidates are campaigning there with a vengeance.
Traditional heartland ideals - like guns and God - play high here.
"I'm not going to vote for Obama," said McCain supporter Larry Flemming. "Obama is going to take away our rights to carry guns, carry arms."
But the weight of a faltering economy is shifting historic allegiances - evident in the most unlikely of places.
That's right: Rednecks for Obama. Hailing from Missouri's bible belt, the NASCAR-loving, gun-toting duo spent the last year working to convert social conservatives over to the Democratic ticket.
"I'm sensing a feeling that we have to change," Les Spencer of Rednecks for Obama said. "This is the most important election that there's ever been."
But in their disillusionment, the Obama campaign sees opportunity.
Obama has 40 Missouri campaign offices; McCain only 16. The Obama team has spent over half a million dollars more in state-wide advertising - and worked to get Democratic registration up in places like St. Louis County.
Wherever you live in Missouri, hard economic times are weighing heavily on voters here.
Especially at the Chrysler plant just outside of the city of St. Louis. At the end of the month, just four days before the election, it will shut down and 1,200 jobs will be lost. But for every one of these manufacturing jobs, five to seven others exist - so the impact will be enormous.
Brenda Carter has worked for Chrysler since 1984. She was five years short of retirement when she got the news she would lose her job at the end of the month.Ways To Win
Calculate paths to the presidency with our Electoral Vote map.
"And now I'm worried about my health benefits," she said. "I'm worried about my Social Security. I'm worried about my pension."
"How do you think what's going on here in Missouri, in terms of the economy, will affect the way people vote? What's your sense?" Couric asked Bruce Reece.
"People want a change," he said. "They want a change for the middle class. And my sense is, this, Barack Obama, is the man to give us that."
Reece faces the prospect of collecting unemployment, or having to move away from his wife and young son in order to carry on the work he's known and loved for 23 years.
Couric said: "Your wife voted for President Bush in 2004. Will she stay Republican this go-round?"
"No, no," Reece said. "She's - her main concern right now is the economy."
Like North Carolina or Virginia, the McCain campaign thought Missouri would be strongly in his column. But the declining economy and Obama's soaring campaign war chest may make it difficult for McCain to make up the deficit.