Anyone but George W. Bush

And now the lastest from Craigorian Chant Senior Midwest correspondent T-Money with the word on the street from the now key primary State of Missouri:


Anyone but George W. Bush.
That’s the Missouri pulse from the news pieces I’ve read. Gephardt's decision to drop out made it a little more difficult for many Missouri voters, particularly in St. Louis (Where ole Gephy is from). According to the local St. Louis paper:

A Research Missouri Poll, conducted for the Post-Dispatch and KMOV (Channel 4), polled 804 likely voters from Wednesday through Friday. It found that 19 percent of the people questioned about their plans for Tuesday's Democratic primary said they were still undecided.

"Since he (Gephardt) is not in the running, everybody is sitting back and saying: 'Show me what you're about, so I can make a decision,'" said Mary "One" Johnson, 47, a real estate agent and broker in St. Louis. "Everybody comes out and talks loud. I don't get excited by that. I like to find out what is really going on, because I take my vote seriously."

Beth Daubel, 38, said she wanted a president who could be a strong world leader; “Bush hasn't measured up”

The comforting thing about that is Clark, Dean, Edwards and Kerry could accomplish that goal (of beating Bush),” said Hunter Beckham, 33. "Hopefully, a couple of them will team up at the end of the game and take back the White House."

“It really kind of bothers me when I see them putting all that energy over there in Iraq tearing it down and building it back and then we got all the issues that we have here," said Cosandra Eddington, 48.

Few people have strong feeling for re-electing W. Much of this has to do with Bush’s foreign policy. A lot of them will most likely make up their minds on the way to the polling places. As in other states the candidates "electability factor” will probably hold more weight than other considerations. I guess Dems would rather just plain win, then have the right man win. They want W. out

Another tactic at least two of the candidates are trying is minority outreach. Kerry and Edwards have met with prominent black pastors. The Post Dispatch reported that Kerry met with18 members of the St. Louis Clergy Coalition, a predominantly African-American group of pastors whose endorsements carry a lot of weight in the black community. The meeting went well prompting the Rev. Earl Nance Jr., one of the Clergy’s members to say "I think he has all the makings of a winner in this thing, he connected with many of us."

Edwards received an endorsement from Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, a former Kansas City mayor. According to the St. Louis post dispatch, this type of out reach is important because while blacks are only 11% of Missouri's population, they make up 20 of Missouri’s Democratic vote. They’re tremendously devoted to the party in Missouri. The Missouri Primary is expect to have a fairly low turn out.