When Betty Hearnes heard the news that Sen. Barack Obama would woo working-class and swing voters in Cape Girardeau, Mo., she thought perhaps the announcer had made a mistake.

"Somebody gave him bad advice," says the wife of former Missouri Gov. Warren E. Hearnes and secretary of the Mississippi County Democratic Committee in southeast Missouri.

"It wouldn't make any difference if he did back flips in Cape Girardeau. They still won't vote for him. They are going to vote Republican. He should have been told that before he went."

Hearnes (left), a former state representative, says she will support any Democratic presidential candidate, but her comments underscore the challenges awaiting Obama as rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hints that her campaign is near sunset. Obama has to figure out is how to pick up support in working-class communities in Missouri, and elsewhere, where Clinton beat him.

A bellwether state, Missouri is essential to Obama. In all but one presidential election since 1904, Missouri voters have aligned with the winning candidate. The exception came in 1956 when Missourians favored Adlai Stevenson over Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In Missouri's primary on Super Tuesday, Obama won the state, thanks to his victories in the state's more urban areas: the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City, St. Louis County, Boone County (where Columbia is) and Cole County (where Jefferson City is). Clinton swept the rural areas of the state, in some counties by up to 20 percentage points.

Now that the primary season is ending and Clinton's campaign may be heading off into the sunset, Obama and party leaders are left to heal political wounds and put together a winning coalition for the November election battle. The concerns raised by Betty Hearnes suggest that may be no easy task: Obama still faces issues of race, gender and class in Missouri and elsewhere.  

"Down here, you have to work like a dog to get your vote out," Hearnes says. She's not suggesting that Democrats write off rural voters, but says they have to focus on getting out the vote in rural communities where the candidate has a chance of making strong showings.

Because many people in her region don't know Obama and others don't like him, it wouldn't hurt to give him more exposure in settings where he can interact with lots of voters at once instead of limiting his appearances to closed town hall-style meetings like the one Obama hosted at Thorngate Ltd. in Cape Girardeau on May 13.

"Some don't like him, you know how that goes," she says. "So, it's better to plan and bring him to a big rally and let him talk." 

The Gender divide

Hearnes says one of the biggest challenges facing the party involves the disappointment of diehard Clinton supporters, particularly women like herself.

"I still think that she is a tremendous candidate," Hearnes says. "The party is going to have to deal with the hurt of losing a qualified woman candidate who had held up and stood the test of time, and that's tough."

She adds that Democrats have healing to do beyond the presidential campaign. She is particularly upset with U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill for backing Obama over Clinton and predicts that the decision could hurt McCaskill's chances for re-election. Long before Super Tuesday became a proper noun, Hearnes says she was part of a southeast Missouri delegation that came to St. Louis to meet with McCaskill to discuss issues unrelated to the presidential election.

"She started talking about the presidential thing and Obama," Hearnes says. "We said Clinton already was in the race. All of us had worked for McCaskill's election, and we told her to cool it and wait to get a feel of who might be in the race. She came out and endorsed (Obama). When she runs again, they (women backers of Clinton) will never forgive her for not waiting."

McCaskill's office said Monday that the senator lacked the time to respond to Hearnes' comments.

Democrats Have Advantage in Numbers 

Doug Brooks, a super delegate who also backed Clinton, says the party has to come to grips with issues it hasn't faced in previous presidential elections.

"That Obama is both black and has a Muslim sounding name -- this is an issue the Democratic Party absolutely has to deal with in a proactive way. It has to educate the public."

Brooks (left) says Democrats have an advantage in that 230,000 more Missourians chose to take Democratic ballots over Republicans on Super Tuesday.

"The number of people participating in the political process for the first time could help the party," and offset those who dislike Obama because he's black or because of the false association with being Muslim, Brooks says.

He also says the party must be ready to address the potential gender fallout.

"If Sen. Clinton loses, you have a large group feeling like a lot of sexism was involved in her loss," Brooks says, "just as a lot of people will feel disenfranchised if Obama loses.

"More than anyone else, the response of the losing candidate will be important. That candidate must step forward, take the responsibility and address the issue."

Misperceptions Widespread

Misinformation and misperceptions about Obama are real -- and are even believed by some county officials in Missouri. At the opposite end of the Bootheel in northwest Missouri, many Democrats don't seem to know what to make of him. They seem less focused on campaign issues, such as the economy, the war and health care, than on character issues and symbolism.

"I think people here are leery of his religion," says Karen Craig, secretary of the Harrison County Democratic Committee, referring to both the controversy over Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, as well as the falsehood that Obama is Muslim. 

"They talk about him all the time," says Craig who adds that she's heard people question Obama's patriotism. "They didn't like his wife's remark about feeling good about her country for the first time. They didn't like the fact that he didn't want to salute the flag. To be president of the United States, saluting the flag is important."

For his part, Obama has responded that patriotism shouldn't be based on whether one wears a lapel pin or places one's hand over one's chest during flag ceremonies. Real patriotism, he argues, is based on the work one does for one's country. 

However innocent such misconceptions are, these are the kinds of falsehoods that the party must directly confront and address, says Brooks, the superdelegate from Joplin, in some kind of education campaign.

For her part, Craig says she's unsure how Obama could overcome such perceptions, but she says the strongest case in his favor is that many Democratic voters don't like John McCain, the putative GOP nominee. 

"I'm not really for Obama," she says, "but that's not to say I wouldn't vote for him."

Still others, like Wayne Stewart, head of the Jackson County Democratic Committee, expect the party to unify around the candidate and don't expect any fallout.

"We have two candidates that are popular in the primary situation, but there's no question in my mind that you'll find an incredible amount of support for our (presidential) candidate," he says.