Campaign Trail

One state, two countries

• Gavin Hewitt
• 10 Oct 08, 03:21 AM GMT

Dayton and Wilmington, Ohio: Ohio - the state is so important to both campaigns that candidates almost collide with each other.

And yet they can appear to inhabit different countries.

We began the day at Fifth Third Field - home of the Dayton Dragons - with Barack Obama.

The crowd is diverse, boisterous. Almost certain of victory. The mood is celebratory in the October sun.

The emphasis of the event is jobs; 35,000 lost in past five years. The enthusiasm for the candidate Is real.

Obama emerges from the bleachers to U2's City of Blinding Lights. He bounds up the steps, graceful In his loose-fitting suit.

Obama starts straight with the economy. "This is a moment of great uncertainty," he says. Then there is a sound problem. The crowd is with him as he changes microphone. Some shout "We love you". His message is populist. "I'll be a president not just looking out for CEOs but for you." He slams the idea of a bail-out for high-rolling real-estate speculators.

The morning mist burns off and Obama removes his jacket. He moves effortlessly from railing against the Bush administration and the greed on Wall Street to offering optimism.

He knows that no politician can win in America without offering hope for tomorrow. So crumbling roads and bridges will be re-built. Every American will get a world-wide education. The offers come tumbling out.

"I'm asking you to believe not in me," he says, "but in yourself." And he heads for the end. There are a few screams in the crowd. For some, he is a rock-star politician.Then it's two swigs of bottled water and he works the rope line. The crowd holds up books to be signed; they want to be photographed with him; they want him to hold their baby.
"He's a history man," says one young woman.

And then we're heading to Wilmington, Clinton County, past the corn stalks and into rural Ohio and another country. Sarah Palin is due for a 7pm appearance. Five hours before that, they start queueing. Some have driven for six hours. The crowd is not diverse. It is white. They love Sarah Palin. They love her certainty. She is one of them. She confirms their identity and who they are in this changing country. She shares their beliefs. Abortion. Guns. The military.

Many of them don't just prefer McCain-Palin - they detest Obama. Almost everyone I spoke to doubted Obama's patriotism. One woman said to me: "He's not American."

Before Sarah Palin arrives they play a video of her life in Alaska. Then the organisers drop some dry ice and her bus drives inside the conference centre. The crowds chant "Sarah, Sarah". It could be a scene out of Political Idol - if there was such a show.

At one point they break into chants of "USA, USA". She questions Obama's patriotism. I would like It, she says, if just once he backed "victory" in Iraq.

It is all red meat to this crowd and they leave fired up. She works the Republican base well. And another election day is over. One state, two countries - or so it sometimes seems.