It's the same story wherever we go. Barack Obama is dominating the ground game and has out organised the McCain campaign in almost every state, even states that were reliably Republican. In the critical swing state of Missouri, I spoke to David Drebes, who blogs at Arch City Chronicle in St Louis and writes for the St Louis Business Journal and also produces a letter for lobbyists in the state. When I asked about Obama's oganisation, he said one word: "Unbelievable".
"There are people with clipboards (for the Obama campaign) everywhere," he said.
And the Republican Party is worried. Last month, he spoke to a Republican lobbyist. "He thought (Obama's organisation) was more impressive than what they've done, and they were pretty proud" of their get out the vote efforts, David said.
To illustrate this, he was talking to someone in rural Monroe County in the northeast part of the state, an area settled by Southern migrants, often referred to as Little Dixie. In this overwhelmingly white county, David said that this person ran into people going door-to-door canvassing for Obama on horseback.
Missouri is a toss-up state, with RealClearPolitics.com showing a statistically insignificant 0.6% advantage for Obama. David said that politically people refer to Missouri as a "miniature map of the country". On the 'coasts' of this United States in miniature are two huge cities, St Louis and Kansas City, which are more urban, more liberal and, therefore, more Democratic. Apart from university towns like Columbia, the rest of the state in between those two cities is rural and reliably Republican. "When you factor that all together, you've got a toss up state", David said.
On the other 'coast' of Missouri in Kansas City, I spoke to Eric Rogers, who writes blogKC.com. He's seeing the same thing as David. "Barack Obama has dozens of field offices all over the state. He has opened offices in small towns that have probably never seen a Democratic field office before."
Both candidates are fighting hard for the state with dueling appearances, but the strategies and turnout at their events have been very different, as Eric blogged recently. Obama recently held huge public rallies in Kansas City where 75,000 people are estimated to have turned out and St Louis where the crowd was even larger, an estimated 100,000. McCain held much smaller invitation only or ticketed events with only a few thousand people.
But Eric is slightly sceptical about the ability of the Obama machine to win Missouri. Four years ago, he volunteered for the John Kerry campaign. They told volunteers how they were going to build a grassroots organisation that would rival Republicans' efforts, just as the Obama campaign has promised. But George Bush won the state by a comfortable 53%-46% margin.
There are signs that the Obama campaign is making good on its promise to out organise the Republicans, he said, but added, "it will be interesting to see if this enough".
No rallying point for social conservatives
There were other factors four years ago that might have contributed to George Bush's victory. Missouri was one of the states where an anti-gay marriage amendment rallied social conservatives. David said in that election he saw something that he'd never seen before. Usually, people vote for president and they cast fewer votes on more minor candidates and 'down-ballot' issues.
"There were certain places in the state where more votes cast on that constitutional amendment than there were for top of the ticket (for president)," he said.
There isn't a ballot initiative with the same resonance for social conservatives this year, with the possible exception of an "English-only" amendment. It would require all government meetings to be conducted in English. It's sparked some controversy in areas such as St Joseph where there is a large Latino population. But as with the rest of the country, the economy has pushed everything else off the agenda, David said.
"It's faded into irrelevance. No one seems to be talking about it all. There has been no organised campaign. No money has been put forward to it. People seem to have forgotten about in the face of issues like the economy," he said.