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President Picks Mo. for Labor Day Campaigning KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Pressing his advantage, President Bush is campaigning by bus in Missouri, where rival John Kerry needs help from a state Democratic Party that faces problems of its own. Bush, who won Missouri in 2000, is enjoying a post-convention bounce in public opinion polls that has the state leaning his way. The president's latest visit to Missouri, which started on Labor Day, is the 21st of his presidency and his eighth trip to the state this year. A bellwether state, Missouri has gone with every presidential winner but one in the past century. Bush narrowly won Missouri in 2000 by 79,000 votes out of 2.3 million cast. Bush speaks at a rally in the Kansas City suburb of Lee's Summit, stops at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia and appears at a county fairgrounds in the college town of Columbia. He made a Labor Day appearance in the southeastern town of Poplar Bluff near the Arkansas state line. Voters in the areas of Lee's Summit and Sedalia overwhelmingly supported Bush four years ago, while he lost the county containing Columbia and the University of Missouri by less than 400 votes. Kerry has made half a dozen trips to Missouri, most recently a month ago as part of a cross-country trek with running mate John Edwards following the Democratic convention. One way for Kerry to win Missouri is a huge voter turnout in heavily Democratic Kansas City and St. Louis, a task that may be complicated by friction within the party. Political analysts point to lingering bitterness in the party's ranks over a primary election that ousted incumbent Democratic Gov. Bob Holden, creating uncertainty over turnout prospects in November. "I wouldn't say it's turmoil, but there's a certain lack of party unity that raises questions about getting behind the top of the ticket," said George E. Connor, associate professor of political science at Southwest Missouri State University.
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