bbc.co.uk Navigation

Talking America

Blog logo

For whom the bell tolls

  • Jon Kelly
  • 1 Oct 08, 03:25 AM GMT

I'm in the Midwest: Missouri, to be precise. Voters in this bellwether state have picked the winner in every presidential election in the past 100 years except 1956. Maybe I can get them to choose my lottery numbers, too.

At first glance, it looks like they keep a beady eye on their politicians around here. When I picked up The Daily American Republic of Poplar Bluff, its front page solemnly itemised how each member of the state's nine-strong delegation to the House of Representatives cast their ballots on the Wall Street bail-out.

For the record, five rejected the proposals: three Republicans and two Democrats. Two from each party supported the bill.

As Jennifer found out, the latter group might have a task ahead explaining themselves to their constituents:

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.

Comments

or register to comment.

  • 1. At 4:01pm on 01 Oct 2008, Gary_A_Hill wrote:

    It's odd that Missouri was on the losing side in 1956, when Eisenhower won reelection handily. Stevenson carried only seven states in the south (and bordering). The Little Rock incident was in 1957, so perhaps the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 was the major influence in the south in 1956. Eisenhower's appointment for Chief Justice, Earl Warren, was the man behind that seminal decision.

    Complain about this comment

View these comments in RSS

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk