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.

Goodwill in Fargo

The holiday spirit is alive and well in North Dakota:

A bank is giving its full-time employees $1,000 each and part-time employees $500 each. There's one condition — use it for people in need.

State Bank & Trust Chief Operating Officer Michael Solberg said each full-time employee will receive $1,000 and each part-time employee will receive $500, as part of a $502,000 "Pay it Forward" initiative.

"We're going to really see some huge impact on our community," Solberg said.

Employees were told not to use the money for themselves, their families or families of other bank employees. The bank asked each employee to document the good deed with a video camera. The deadline is June 30.

The employees were told they may choose an individual cause, pool their money for a larger project or collaborate with donors outside the bank. The privately owned bank has more than 500 employees, he said.

The bank made the announcement over the weekend.

In previous years, the Fargo-based bank has taken 5 percent of the company earnings and divided it up at holiday time among employees.