MO don't need no stinking mandates

We really try to stay away from too much news-chasing but this was too note-worthy to pass up and, besides, we never blog about health care or anything.

Oh my.

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a key provision of President Barack Obama's health care law, sending a clear message of discontent to Washington and Democrats less than 100 days before the midterm elections.

71 percent of Missouri voters backed a ballot measure, Proposition C, that would prohibit the government from requiring people to have health insurance or from penalizing them for not having it.

The Missouri law conflicts with a federal requirement that most people have health insurance or face penalties starting in 2014.

Tuesday's vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law. But it was also seen as a sign of growing voter disillusionment with federal policies and a show of strength by conservatives and the tea party movement.

"To us, it symbolized everything," said Annette Read, a tea party participant from suburban St. Louis who quit her online retail job to lead a yearlong campaign for the Missouri ballot measure. "The entire frustration in the country ... how our government has misspent, how they haven't listened to the people, this measure in general encompassed all of that."

The article states that opponents to the proposition did not put up much of a fight. Now, this could be a result of the ballot measure being largely symbolic as the article notes or possibly because of the enthusiasm deficit for the Obama agenda that has been whispered about in Democratic camps and the general unpopularity of ObamaCare.

Whichever, we'll take it. It's a tremendous signal sent to Washington by the voters of Missouri. Now, time to take this MOmentum and turn it into something not so symbolic in November.