Arch-Rivalry In Missouri

ByABC News
September 12, 2008, 5:14 PM

— -- As goes Missouri, so goes the nation. Well, that is if history has anything to say about the 2008 race to the White House.

Missouri has voted with the winner in every presidential election since 1904 (with the exception of 1956 race), earning the Show-Me State another nickname in political circles: The Bellwether State.

Not all that surprising, when one considers Missouri's makeup: with major cities St. Louis and Kansas City, to farms in the northern part of the state, to the rolling Ozark Mountains in the south, it's somewhat of a microcosm of the United States.

With 11 electoral votes at stake, both Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hope to repeat their respective Super Tuesday primary victories and ride the Missouri wave all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

But which will it be? And will Missouri again predict the winner? Stay tuned as ABC News takes a look at the candidates' arch rivalry as they battle their way to the White House.