MISSOURIANS HAVE WITNESSED UNFORGETTABLE ELECTION YEAR

Who has ever seen a political year, especially we Missourians, quite like this one? A two-term governor opposing an incumbent U.S. senator dies with his son and an aide just 22 days out from the most hotly contested Senate election since Harry Truman's re-election against Gov. Lloyd Stark, back in 1940. There ensues a week of dignified mourning climaxed by a state funeral for Governor Carnahan, 16 days ago, that was truly awe-inspiring. An unforgettable moment in an unforgettable year occurred when the FA-18 Hornets came screaming in from the west in the symbolic missing-man formation. As they reached the vicinity of the Capitol, one plane screamed away from the others, kicking in its after-burner and heading straight up over the thousands of us on the Capitol lawn. A Senate colleague from northern Missouri turned to me and said that thrilling sight was something else.

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Lopsided endorsement totals:

As of the end of last week, many newspapers across Missouri had endorsed candidates in the governor's race between State Treasurer Bob Holden and U.S. Rep. Jim Talent. You might think that endorsements from papers liberal, moderate and conservative would be pretty evenly divided between the two candidates in this nearly even race. You would be wrong. As of last week, all the newspapers across this great state that endorsed in the governor's race, save two, recommended Republican Jim Talent.

The two papers that endorsed Holden: The Kansas City Star and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the latter known nationally as one of America's most liberal daily newspapers.

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Catholic Democrats for Bush:

Raymond Flynn, the Democratic former Boston mayor who served as the Clinton administration's first ambassador to the Vatican, has endorsed Texas Gov. George W. Bush for president.

"I decided that it is better to be a good American and a good Catholic than a good Democrat," Flynn said at a press conference Tuesday in Pittsburgh. "On issues that are so important to the Catholic community -- life, education, taxes, values -- there is only one choice on Election Day. We can no longer tolerate the gruesome procedure known as partial-birth abortion. The Clinton-Gore administration twice vetoed legislation that would have ended this procedure."

One might add that the late Governor Carnahan also vetoed similar legislation twice, in an action that we must assume had the assent and support of his widow, now attempting to stand in for him should the Carnahan name prevail on Tuesday.

There is little question that Catholics are the decisive swing votes in this election, as they have been many times before. It is their votes that narrowly elected John F. Kennedy in 1960, it is they who became the famous Reagan Democrats during the 1980s and it is they who swung back toward Bill Clinton the last two elections.

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Gore's Hail-Mary pass?

Thursday night's revelation of a 24-year-old DWI charge guilty plea by a 30-year-old Gov. Bush will be his finest moment if, by the time you read this, he has handled it properly.

For a guy who hasn't had a drink in 14 years, news of a youthful DWI offense where nobody was hurt can be a story of redemption.

And not the redemption of the Bible-toting Bill Clinton, heading out of church to an assignation with Monica, but the real McCoy.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.