McCain Wins Missouri by 0.12%

John McCain has finally been declared the winner in the state of Missouri - making it officially slower than Alaska in counting the votes. McCain's narrow victory over Obama also breaks a bellwether streak in which Missourians had picked the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1956; unless you count the real results in 2000 and 2004

With all jurisdictions reporting complete but unofficial results, McCain led Obama by 3,632 votes Wednesday out of more than 2.9 million cast - a margin of 0.12 percentage points. Both men spent considerable resources trying to win Missouri, a state that Obama ultimately did not need for his national victory. Missouri's 11 electoral votes make the final electoral vote tally 365 for Obama and 173 for McCain.

100,000 in Saint Louis

Barack Obama hammered John McCain over his tax proposals before a crowd of 100,000 at a rally near the Gateway Arch in St. Louis today:



"John McCain is so out of touch with the struggles you are facing that he must be the first politician in history to call a tax cut for working people 'welfare,'" Obama said.

Obama Pulls Ahead in Missouri, North Dakota

It's been said time and time again that nobody wins the presidency without winning the "Show Me State", and Barack Obama is showing Missourians what they want to see! Over the last three weeks, polling there has shown a ten-point swing towards Obama. He now leads John McCain by a 51-43 spread.


In a further setback for the McCain camp, Obama has pulled ahead in one of the deep-red plains states, North Dakota. New polling shows Obama with a 45-43 lead in that state. That's within the poll's margin of error, but is very significant in a state that has gone Democratic only three times since 1916. McCain held a 13-point lead less than a month ago. A surprising 12% remain undecided.

Another Republican Hypocrite Pervert

Missouri State Representative Scott Muschany, co-sponsor of a 2007 bill which set guidelines for how teenagers are taught about sex, as well as 2006 legislation that toughened sex offender laws, has been charged with the felony sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. The victim in the case was the daughter of a state employee that Muschany was romantically involved with. Muschany is a 42 year old married father of two. For now anyway. Does it even get any sicker than that?

The assault rape occurred one day after this year’s Legislative session ended. Two days later, Muschany suddenly announced his intention to not seek re-election saying that he - you know what's coming right? Yep, the standard excuse for these types - "wanted to spend more time with his family". Somehow I don't think that's going to be reciprocated. . .

Dewey Defeats Truman!

Oops, they did it again. . .

Both the Associated Press and then Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign jumped the gun on Super Tuesday, claiming a Clinton victory in Missouri about one hour before the state was won by Sen. Barack Obama:

"In Missouri, Barack Obama outspent Hillary by $300,000 in TV ads," a Clinton campaign memo read, working off the news service's report. "He also benefited from the endorsements of high-profile surrogates across the state such as Representatives Carnahan and Clay, and Senator McCaskill, all of whom actively campaigned for him and appeared in ads on his behalf. Despite these challenges - and with the help of Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and Former Majority Leader Dick Gephardt - Hillary Clinton won this important toss-up state."

Earlier in the evening the wire service had predicted that Clinton would prevail in the state. And, as the memo demonstrated, the Clinton campaign saw Missouri as a demonstration of its ability to fend off Obama's momentum in those states in which he had big-name support.

But, like elections before (see: Gore v. Bush, presidential election 2000), the results were declared before they were finalized. And as the numbers trickled in, news outlets began tepidly declaring an "apparent" Obama win.

At the time of print there were unconfirmed accounts that the AP was retracting its earlier report. And as the Politico noted, apparently similar electoral confusion happened during Obama supporter, Sen. Claire McCaskill's 2006 election night win.

Also, as Marc Ambinder reports, according to Missouri state law the primary loser can request a recount when the margin of victory is less than one percent, approximately Obama's margin.