ST. LOUIS — The Bourbon Room caught up with first-term Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Democrat who occupies Harry S Truman’s former seat in the Senate (not the seat itself, but in the line of those who have succeeded The Man from Independence).

TBR asked McCaskill if Barack Obama gaffed his response to Joe the Plumber about his tax policy and his desire to “spread the wealth” with higher taxes on the rich.

McCaskill: “I think he would probably say he could have said it better.  What he was trying to drive is this point – John McCain believes, just as George Bush does, that tax cuts should go to the very wealthy at the top and somehow we’ll all benefit from them.  Barack Obama believes the opposite; that it’s time to give the middle class a tax cut, the small businessman a tax cut.  And that’s what he was trying to convey. And it’s a matter of who gets the tax cut, not a matter of spreading wealth.”

TBR also asked about the crowd of 100,000 beneath the Gateway Arch.

McCaskill: “I’ve never seen a crowd like this in Missouri and I’ve been to a lot of large presidential rallies over the last several election cycles. The energy is unique and different and I think it is going to make the difference on election day. You know, this election is one for the history books in a lot of ways and I think turnout is going to be another chapter in the history book.  It is a historic election and I do think this notion that there will be low turnout among young voters and low turnout among first-time time voters, I think that is going to be one that is going to be abandoned in this election.

And what about Gov. Sarah Palin?

McCaskill: “We should never stand in judgment of other citizens in terms of their patriotism.  We all acknowledge that John McCain is a patriot and so is Sarah Palin and they ought to do the same for our supporters and for Senator Obama and Senator Biden.  This notion that some parts of the country are more patriotic than others, I think its offensive.

TBR also asked about the tone of McCain’s campaign: the robo-calls, mailers and references to Obama economic policies as promoting welfare or socialism (recently, two GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Norm Coleman of respectively, Maine and Minnesota, have criticized the McCain robo calls).

McCaskill: “You know what John McCain is doing this campaign makes me sad, because I don’t think it’s who he is.  I think he has somehow lost the notion of country first and honor, in an incredible drive to win. And you know, I don’t want him to win because I think Barack Obama will be a better president. But I think he’s not serving himself well or his record well by running a campaign that is so negative and so misleading.”