Well really unlike those cases Missouri didn't matter, there were no delegates.
Though all of these early contests really are just shows of enthusiasm.
If someone won Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, they'd say he had it wrapped up. Not because he had won an insurmountable amount of delegates, just because he had the enthusiasm of voters in all these different states.
These states reward an insignificant amount of delegates, it's just about seeing who voters currently favor.
So in that sense Missouri did matter, just as an enthusiasm thermometer, which is no different than what most contests have been so far.
