Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota, Montana....how the HELL could we not win those?
In two of them (IN and MO), we had candidates who were not politically savvy enough to avoid making bonehead remarks that the media and the ‘Rats were able to conflate and twist so that in the end they were a caricature of what was intended. Our candidates need to be smart enough to know what to say to avoid those kind of “gotcha” setups. It was “Macaca” all over again. We need to field candidates who are smart enough to understand two things. One is that the media is your enemy and they will always be digging for any kind of misstatement that they can use against you. The second is that the average voter isn’t very smart and that leaves them vulnerable to manipulation by the media and the ‘Rats. So you have to be extra careful to say things in the right way and avoid the traps they set for you.
We have enough to call for secession as well.
Missouri has a habit of voting for one party for the Presidency and the other for the Senate, one for the House and the other for the Governorship. They balance one against the other — unfortunately. Given that this was a Republican year for the Presidential vote in Missouri, the Democrat McCaskill had the advantage in the Senate race, plus she was the incumbent.