Missouri

[jman123]

Why was Missouri so close in 2008? Obama almost carried it.

[Thomas D]

The state tilts to the right so in an Election where the Dem wins 52-47 across the Nation MO should be close. It wasn't that close in 2000 when we basically had a tie in the national popular vote.

[ElectionsGuy]

The state tilts to the right so in an Election where the Dem wins 52-47 across the Nation MO should be close. It wasn't that close in 2000 when we basically had a tie in the national popular vote.

Also Missouri has been leaning more right as in trend.
2000: R+3.8%
2004: R+4.8%
2008: R+7.3% (Obama won by 7.2%)
2012: R+13.3%

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

Obama didn't make as hard of a push there as he did in Indiana IIRC, and MO would have been close anyway, as it Leaned R in a Lean D election.

[ElectionsGuy]

Obama didn't make as hard of a push there as he did in Indiana IIRC, and MO would have been close anyway, as it Leaned R in a Lean D election.

Yeah, you can definitely tell Obama invested time into Indiana because it made a huge jump...
2004: R+18.2%
2008: R+6.2%
Then Indiana said screw you back and voted back to normal again
2012: R+14.1%

[illegaloperation]

Missouri used to be called the bellwether state for a reason

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_bellwether

[ElectionsGuy]

Missouri used to be called the bellwether state for a reason

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_bellwether

Quote from Wikipedia Page:

journalists in recent times have pointed to states like Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and California as more accurate political and cultural bellwethers.

Ha, that's funny

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Unless by "cultural" they mean something determined by mass population like entertainment or the like and not cultural issues (which can be implied since it lists political separate from it) in which case then Californian would make perfect sense.