The buzz surrounding Tuesday’s visit by Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic frontrunner for president, to Cape Girardeau to make an appeal to those elusive working-class voters, centers on one question:

What prompted him to go there?

Over the past 20 years, political history indicates that stopping by Cape — even though it’s Republican territory – has become the thing to do for presidential (or vice-presidential) contenders in both major parties.

Here’s a short list:

– In 1988, Thorngate Ltd. (Obama’s stop of choice) hosted a visit by Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen, running mate to Michael Dukakis.

– In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton launched his two-day, post-convention caravan from a Cape Girardeau park. (HOT day, and my laptop blew up.)

– In 1999, George W. Bush officially kicked off his Missouri presidential campaign with a stop (also in August) in Cape. (I remember standing in the middle of Cape’s runway, in the dark, to greet his plane. A Missouri native aide on Bush’s plane told the then-governor of Texas my name, so Bush could walk off his plane with a “Jo!! Glad you came!!” The aide walked off behind him, laughing hysterically. I don’t forget, Jack.)

–In 2004, then-Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edward stopped by Cape for an overnight. No public events were planned.

 But when he woke up (for a 7 a.m. pre-arranged interview with yours truly, who’d driven down the night before), Edwards’ entourage found close to 1,000 people milling outside the hotel.

Edwards ended up addressing them from the back of a flatbed truck parked in the hotel parking lot, before he jumped into a car and headed to St. Louis for a rally later that day with the Democratic nominee, John Kerry.

UPDATE:

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Cape native, called this afternoon with even more political recollections.

In 1952, Kinder said, GOP vice presidential nominee Richard Nixon (Ike’s running mate) made a campaign stop in Cape, traveling by train from St. Louis.

But the banner year had to be 1968, when Kinder was in junior high.

That spring, Democratic presidential contender Bobby Kennedy attracted thousands to a rally in Cape Girardeau, Kinder recalled.

A few months later, Democratic rival George Wallace — then the governor of Alabama — had a rally in Cape.

And in late fall, Republican vice presidential nominee Spiro Agnew dropped by to stump for Nixon.

Kinder says he remembers those events well, because he attended all three of them. (Something that’s less possible now, since candidates in both parties often have pre-screened and invitation-only crowds.)

In 1980, he added, then-Vice President Walter Mondale stopped in Cape during the re-election campaign for then-President Jimmy Carter.