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A new dawn for America
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Enlarge textIt's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me and I'm feeling good.
SBS's Emma Hannigan was in Grant Park, Chicago, for Barack Obama's historic victory speech
Nothing could be more appropriate for the atmosphere in Chicago today than the words of Nina Simone, writes SBS's Emma Hannigan.
Last night was historic.
Being there was surreal but waking up this morning, seeing the papers, watching President-elect Obama's speech repeatedly on TV and hearing the excitement in people's voices has made me even more aware of the history I was involved in by being in Chicago's Grant Park to hear Barack Obama give the speech of his life.
topAre the times a-changin' ?
After spending the weekend in Washington, we've now arrived in Columbus, Ohio.
Barack Obama is firing up supporters at rallies across Ohio, but will his message convince them to vote?
Just.
The clocks changed here last night. I set my phone back an hour before I went to bed, not realising that it would change automatically, so I woke up late and we almost missed our flight!
We are here in Columbus for an Obama rally.
It's the first Obama rally we've been to and the crowds are huge, around 60,000, but to be honest the speech was a bit of a disappointment, only because we've heard it all before.
Confronting the past in Alabama
I studied the American civil rights movement at university, so it's great to finally see some of the places I became so familiar with.
More than four decades on from the civil rights struggle, many activists hope Barack Obama's election will come as a result of their fight for equal rights.
Our first stop is Birmingham, Alabama. It's a quiet ordered place, with wide empty streets.
The plane was late in arriving so we are a few minutes late for our first interview. It's with Artur Davis, Alabama's second ever black congressman.
He was born in 1967, so he missed the most violent period in the struggle for civil rights in Alabama.
The end of the road - but not the trip
We end our road trip with a flying visit to St Louis, Missouri, where Sashka has tracked down a former Republican voter who is barracking for Obama because of the death of his daughter in Iraq.
The SBS team's road trip has ended, but their American tour goes on - next stop Alabama.
Dr John Johnson served in the army for 3 years and worked with the military for 25 years.
His daughter Levina joined the military because she didn't want her parents to be paying for two kids to go to university at once and thought her younger sister should take precedence.
Dr Johnson and his wife were opposed to her joining because they feared she'd be sent to Iraq.
Brimstone and bigotry in Kansas
From liberal Illinois to the conservative Midwest - we're on our way to Kansas and Missouri.
The Westboro Baptist Church holds homophobic protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq
En route we stop in Springfield, Illinois. It's the state capital, where Obama began his political campaign, and is the birth-place of Abraham Lincoln.
The hotel is rudimentary and the staff surly, but I suppose that's what you get for $100.
We get up early (again!) as we have a very long drive and finally after 7 hours we arrive.
Chicago prepares for Obama party
Next stop Chicago. Illinois is not a battleground state. In fact the Republicans are so outnumbered here that they are not even bothering to campaign.
Obama's supporters are hopeful of victory - but fear their candidate's safety may be at risk
When we visited the one Republican office here they weren't even bothering to phone voters in the state, they were calling through to people in Wisconsin.
According to one of the polls Barack Obama is ahead by as much as 26% here in Illinois.
Our first interview is with the engaging Illinois state senator Ricky "Hollywood" Hendon.
We've just spent the last two days in Ohio. At times we've been thinking that we've bitten off more than we can chew.
SBS's election team tracked former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani down in Ohio
The driving is taking us a lot longer than we'd anticipated. And some of the people we've arranged to speak to have dropped out at the last minute. It feels like we are constantly running to catch up with ourselves.
Ohio reminds me a bit of Britain in the 1980's. Industries in decline, jobs shipped overseas, working people struggling to survive. At least in Britain they could get the dole and free health care.
Some people here are in a really bad way.
Autumn in Summersville
Today we're hitting the road in a major way. We've just left Lynchburg in Virginia and to the sounds of bluegrass on the radio we are travelling through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia into West Virginia through Pennsylvania and onto Ohio.
Summersville: pretty name, shame about the truck-stop
We've got to be in Youngstown, Ohio, for a series of interviews tomorrow morning so we have little time to spare.
Autumn, or Fall as they call it here, is setting in and the countryside looks breathtakingly beautiful. Almost Heaven, as the song goes.
At least most of it does. We've just stopped at a road-side service station near the town of Summersville.
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About this Blog
SBS's Brian Thomson visits Main Street USA to meet the voters who will decide who gets the keys to the White House.
Brian Thomson SBS's senior correspondent Brian Thomson, cameraman Ryan Sheridan and producer Sashka Koloff are travelling through some of the key states which will decide the outcome of the 2008 election.
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