US election 2012: Battle-worn Barack takes his fight to the Democrat Convention
Compared to four years ago, this week's Democrat Convention will be a subdued affair, with Barack Obama facing an election battle that he is far from guaranteed to win.
5:30PM BST 01 Sep 2012
35 CommentsFour years ago, Missouri senator Claire McCaskill proudly appeared on stage at the Democrat convention in Denver to endorse Barack Obama as the party's youthful candidate for president.
It was the start of a celebratory week in which he accepted the presidential nomination in front of 84,000 adoring supporters against a grandiose backdrop of faux Greco-Roman columns.
But this week, as party delegates and power-brokers gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, for their 2012 convention, Miss McCaskill will be spending her time campaigning in her home state rather than rubbing shoulders with the president.
An early convert to the upstart Obama campaign in 2008, she is now one of a growing number of Democratic politicians - from as far as field as New York to Montana - who are skipping the jamboree, and Mr Obama's company, to focus on tough re-election battles in November.
"Would you go to North Carolina to a bunch of parties and glad-handing, or would you stay home and work, as hard as you know how, to convince Missourians they should rehire you?" she remarked when she announced she was staying away.
