“Missouri went Rep in 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000, 2004, and 2008.........”
Please note I said “similar” (though I admittedly underestimated MO in terms of recent Presidential elections).
However, as far as “solid blue” is concerned ... Gore won PA by 3% in 2000 and Kerry won PA by < 3% in 2004. Trust me, its not that blue of a state despite 2008. The state is trending “better” overall. 2010 was quite a nice recovery from 2008. I hold some hope for 2012, but not much.
“Santorum ran into a national buzz saw in 2006.”
Much like Akin is charging head first into the national buzzsaw.
Please, PLEASE understand that I hope I am wrong :-). I know I’m contributing to what people in the Akin camp (terrible way to refer to this) are seeing as “ the chicken little syndrome of 2012”, but my first thoughts ran to Rick Santorum when this whole thing unfolded.
What happened in 2006 is similar to what happened in the 2010 midterms. Just as 2006 was a harbinger of what happened in 2008, 2010 could foreshadow what will happen in 2012. Akin is not running into a buzz saw, McCaskill and Obama are.