“They’ll listen to him; they’ll smile at him,” Jackson said. “But talk’s cheap. They want to know what you’re really made of down here. He may communicate well, but what he stands for does not resonate in the southwest part of this state.”

Obama’s message about alternative energy sources and tax breaks for the middle class — at the exclusion of wealthier residents — drew large applause in Springfield.

“They’re going to try to make you scared of me: He’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills,” Obama told the crowd. “He’s risky; that’s the argument.”

Obama added: “We are in a time right now where it is too risky not to change.”

Former Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Joe Carmichael, a Springfield attorney, said this could be the year that a Democratic presidential candidate either carries southwest Missouri or at least cuts into the GOP advantage enough to eke out a win in the state, based on the strength of a Democratic areas of St. Louis and Kansas City.

Carmichael, who helped host a roughly $250,000 fundraiser for Obama Tuesday night in Springfield, rests his hopes on Obama’s communication skills and the excitement for change that seems to follow his campaign.

“A lot of times we’ve had difficulty reaching independents and Republicans in the Ozarks because we couldn’t get around some of the hot-button issues. We couldn’t talk about health care because of the constant barrage on abortion,” Carmichael said. “He’s someone who can get us past some of the hot-button issues.”