Oh, by the way. There's a Democratic presidential primary in Missouri next week. Now granted, until the early retirement of Dick Gephardt, the rest of the Democratic pack had written the Show-Me state off as a waste of time. But now that Gephardt has taken to the sidelines, suddenly the whole host of candidates are finding time to visit the state.
Virtually without exception, the Democrats will hit Missouri beginning tonight to share their "vision" of how we need to change this great country. But did you know - and I certainly didn't - that St. Louis voters cast three-fourths of the total votes in the last presidential primary here. In other words, not too many people in Missouri - outside of St. Louis - put much faith in the primary system. And why St. Louis? Well, minorities and unions form the backbone of the Democratic party and St. Louis lays claim to large numbers of those voting blocs. Thus, St. Louis is ground zero for the Democrats come next Tuesday.
This column is written prior to the final outcome in New Hampshire so it's difficult to know which candidate might actually have some momentum going into the primary here next week. Since they haven't visited the state or spent money in the state, it's impossible to judge what voters here will do. Were Gephardt to endorse one of the hopefuls, that would change the balance substantially. That however seems unlikely to happen.
I assume what Missouri Democrats will examine between now and next Tuesday is which candidate best represents the views held dearly by Missourians. That would be my guess. But the national attitude is much different. The general thinking among Democrats - if you pay attention to the polls - is which candidate has the better chance to upset George W. Bush in November. Those two philosophies, to me at least, are far different. Unless, of course, the most electable candidate is by coincidence the one who best represents Missourians' views.
It's funny in a way to read the media reports out this week about the mad scramble underway to establish a presence in Missouri given the sudden departure of Gephardt. I'm amused that candidates who have never visited our state are suddenly overwhelmed with interest in hearing the voices of "real" Missourians. But nothing is unusual in politics. And that applies equally to both parties.
Oops, I almost forgot as I was writing this column. Al Sharpton has visited Missouri twice in the past year in fact. The Rev. Al was in St. Louis to protest something or another and managed to get arrested, as I recall. Now there's a candidate who can lay a serious claim to having an interest in the issues of Missouri. So by that measure, Sharpton should be the favorite next week.
I'm truly beginning to like this election season more and more.