Op-Ed: Missouri Finally Called for McCain

Missouri's razor thin margin, as well as the loss of her Bellweather status, may be the clues of things yet to come in the Midwest.

If there is any silver lining to be found in the Left's pummeling of the GOP, it's that Missouri remains in the Red category. Living here in the Midwest, one gets a sense of how things should be. One of the largest and busiest retail outlets in the area is a fishing and hunting chain. Pick up trucks and country music are prevalent and Hunting season is like pilgrim week. Here in Missouri, and the surrounding states, you will see a few more churches than you will on the coasts. More pro-gun bumper stickers, and picket fences. Conservative values just seem more prevalent on the outskirts of Rural America. After GOP strongholds like Virginia and Indiana turned Blue, Missouri's retention was all that more important. But what are the differences between Missouri, Virginia and Indiana? To be sure, Indiana is a Midwestern farm state, pretty much in the same mold as Missouri. Virginia, with a burgeoning northern population, is still a fairly rural state. Granted, the cities are growing much faster with transplants, but it was always a traditional values state. Missouri voted a number of tax increases in, and it did take a long time to count the votes, and when it was done, it was by less than a couple of tenths of a point. Indiana was defeated by two counties. So, while in Missouri we held on to our Red status, the trend may be moving Blue. The loss of the Bellweather status maybe a harbinger as well. Whatever the trends are in the Midwest, Missouri opted to stay with traditional values, even if it took weeks to figure it out.