Comments on: 2008: A year of political surprises in Missouri

By: bs

bs — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:15:15 +0000

…I can almost see the Wentzville GM plant from my house.

I believe the Claycomo plant is in Liberty, which of course is near KC. They apparently build F-150s, and according to this article, they’re doing pretty well.

Also, I think for all practical purposes, one of the Chrysler plants (South plant) here in STL is shut down. Not permanently, but I think it’s been idle since October.

Sen. Bond was one of the few (10?) GOP senators that supported the Big 3 bailout package..

By: MORepublican

MORepublican — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:19:02 +0000

Wentzville is not near KC. It’s about 35 miles west of St. Louis.

I think there is a Ford plant in Claycomo, which is near KC. Not sure though. I live in Columbia.

Schaefer’s win was uber-sweet over Chuck “Stand-Up Chuck/3-car Pile-up and DUI” Graham. Living in Columbia, I thought Kurt could pull it out, but it was not by any means a sure thing. It is definitely an upset win, but one that was not as big as upset as one might believe. I would equate it to a #11 seed beating a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament - surprising, but not shocking. Kurt’s chances going in to Election Night were better than what most people thought.

By: Josh Painter

Josh Painter — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:49:37 +0000

A Sea of Red in St. Louis

By: Brian Simpson

Brian Simpson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:56:04 +0000

I know.

I was already planning on attending, but everyone (and yes I do mean everyone) that I talked to said they were their because of Palin.

By: bs

bs — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:44:06 +0000

The rally was actually a McCain rally, but with the close proximity to Palin’s selection, I strongly suspect that a huge amount of the turnout was for Gov. Palin.

By: bs

bs — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:42:25 +0000

It drew about 20K people, as I recall. Brian was there and wrote a very nice diary about the event. I wasn’t feeling well that afternoon, but my wife and sons attended.

Other than that outrageous omission, nice writeup. I’m with Brian on the Blunt thing. He did the GOP in MO no favors.

By: Brian Simpson

Brian Simpson — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:59:00 +0000

I think we really need to place a lot of blame for the failure of the GOP in MO this year at the feet of Blunt. His surprise announcement that he would not run left the party essentially neutered. Even if he would have lost to Nixon, I think we could have had a chance at retaining Steelman’s spot as Treasurer. Now we are looking at a nearly complete control of the state wide offices by Democrats (with the exception of Lt Gov Peter Kinder). At least we control both houses of Missouri’s legislature. If we didn’t, I would expect to see an expansion of state government much like what we are set to see from the federal government. All of that would lead to ruin her in Missouri as we are one of the few states that looks likely to weather this downturn. Yes, we’ll have to make cuts, but not near as bad as most other states.