Missouri goes as the inner cities go - when they turn out the vote. Party machine politics is alive and well in St. Louis and Kansas City. Emmanual (originally Ralph - a nice guy but behind 34,000 in property taxes for his car wash business) Cleaver, former mayor of KCMO (a very corrupt period resulting in many FBi arrests for political and corporate and governmental graft and corruption) and now Democrat congressional Candidate is energizing the inner cities and minority voters. He is opposed by Jean Patterson the wife of the Cerner Corporation president - a healthcare software corporation that is a rising star of the region.
Kerry can win on Cleavers coattails if Jean doesn't do her thing to the nth degree.
Claire McCaskill is also a force to recon with since she challenged the incumbent governor and won the primary against Holden. With so many fresh or eager faces on the Dem side it may be a landslide unless Republicans get out the vote. And to date - they haven't done much save run TV and radio ads.