Senate business has forced Barack Obama to cancel an appearance today in Kentucky, but his stop in Missouri appears on track.

The Southeast Missourian, quoting sources closed to Obama ally Claire McCaskill, says that the Illinois Senator rushed back to Capitol Hill for a vote suspending oil shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a sort of a national rainy day fund for gas that can be tapped in an energy crisis.

(Some would say we are in an energy crisis now. That could be why Obama made sure he voted on the measure, which lawmakers hope will lower prices at the pump. Obama’s colleagues certainly didn’t need his vote - the plan passed 97-1.)

Obama was set to speak this morning in Lexington, Ky., where primary voters will head to the polls next Tuesday.

According to the Southeast Missourian, Obama is keeping his scheduled appointment in Cape Girardeau, where the Democratic front-runner is booked for a town hall meeting at a clothing manufacturer, Thorngate Ltd.