corrente

that my own state of Missouri is now in play folks!

The decision by both presidential contenders to shift campaign resources out of Missouri may have put the state back in play.

A new poll for the Post-Dispatch shows the race in Missouri tightening. President George W. Bush's earlier lead has slipped among the state's voters. But the Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, has so far been unable to close the gap, in part because the poll shows a growing number of Missouri voters view him unfavorably.

The survey indicates that Bush, a Republican, still is seen as better able to handle the war on terror, but those polled appear to be a bit more pessimistic about the war in Iraq and the nation's economy.

Meanwhile, Kerry's standing among women appears to have improved slightly. But his overall unfavorable rating among state voters has climbed from 23 percent in January to 45 percent in the latest poll.

The upshot: Bush and Kerry enter the final week before the election in a too-close-to-call race among likely Missouri voters. Of those polled, 48 percent back Bush while 45 percent support Kerry. The remaining 7 percent said they are still undecided or have chosen a third-party candidate.

Bush's lead is well within the margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, which means that any number could be that much higher or lower. In the newspaper's September poll, the president had a 49-42 percent lead, just at the edge of that poll's margin of error.

Oh yeah -- and apparently Arkansas and West Virginia are back in play as well.

With Kerry now pulling ahead in most of the national horse race polls as well (WaPo poll is here), I think that finally the wheels are starting to come off for W and the boys.

Isn't it past time for them to warm up the old "scare-o-matic" again?

Terror alert, anyone?

UPDATE Josh Marshall asks the same question.

UPDATE 2 Drudge claims the administration has a terror alert in the offing presumably for this weekend. Now isn't that a shocking surprise, huh?

I suspect W and the boys are going to try to scare people into voting for them over the weekend.

I'm guessing they'll wait until noon on Friday so they can get the most political bang for their buck. What do you think folks?

Thanks to reader Bruce in the comments to this post for the tip.