Never one to tip-toe around sticky subjects, Sen. Claire McCaskill told Bootheel Democrats in Dexter last night that turning out rural Missouri for Barack Obama would be a challenge.

“I’m willing to bet that every single one of you has talked to a friend or a neighbor or someone you know in church or somebody at the ball field and somebody has said to you, ‘There’s no way I’m voting for that Barack Obama,’” McCaskill said.

The senator and close Obama ally told party stalwarts at the Southeast Missouri Democratic Rally how to respond to such comments:

“Turn to them and say: ‘Have you looked at your bank account lately? Have you gone and filled up your pickup with gas lately? Have you tried to find health insurance you can afford?’”

McCaskill blamed Republicans for the weak dollar, a burgeoning war debt and policies geared toward “the few, the powerful and the wealthy.”

“Stay focused on what’s at stake,” she urged. “If Barack Obama were standing here today, he would tell you, this is not about him, this is about you.”

Afterward, McCaskill said in an interview that she “just wanted to state the obvious. A skinny, black guy from Chicago that nobody had heard of 18 months ago — that’s a tall drink of water for people to absorb.

“I think it’ll get easier as we get him out here. I’m optimistic. This is kind of an earth-spinning moment.”

McCaskill said Obama will campaign hard in Republican-leaning parts of Missouri because for him, “it’s not a cold, calculated chess match. He really believes, in order to govern the whole country, you have to campaign in the whole country.”

Indeed, Buffy Wicks, Obama’s state director, announced that the Obama campaign would open four offices in southeast Missouri — “more than any presidential campaign ever has” — and would hire 12 full-time staff members in the region.

Unlike four years ago, when John Kerry gave up and pulled his troops out of the state before the election, “I’m here to tell you tonight: We will not pull out of Missouri,” Wicks said. “We are committed to winning the state.”