:00:11. > :00:15.It is the longest, most expensive and most important election
:00:15. > :00:21.campaign in the world, and it is almost over. You know that I will
:00:21. > :00:26.fight for you and your family's every single day. To the people
:00:26. > :00:29.want four more years like the last year's? No. The race to the White
:00:29. > :00:33.House is almost over. Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney are
:00:33. > :00:36.neck-and-neck. When Obama came to power, it was seen by millions
:00:36. > :00:46.around the world as a real moment of change. I have come to America
:00:46. > :00:47.
:00:47. > :00:52.to find out why so many people here seem to think he has let them down.
:00:52. > :00:57.Good Morning America, breaking news. The Perfect Storm. A week before
:00:57. > :01:04.polling day, Sandy added even more unpredictability to this already
:01:04. > :01:08.unpredictable election. The deadly storm caused billions of dollars of
:01:08. > :01:14.damage to people's homes and businesses, particularly in New
:01:14. > :01:21.York. Every single person on this block have lost everything. I can't
:01:21. > :01:26.believe this. It meant Obama Ann Romney both had to quickly change
:01:26. > :01:30.their plans. And so did we, because of all the disruption to flight. We
:01:30. > :01:34.have ended up here in Atlanta in the state of Georgia, home to
:01:34. > :01:38.rapper Kanye West and Coca-Cola. But we need to be in North Carolina,
:01:38. > :01:43.400 miles away. So you can imagine there is a long drive ahead.
:01:43. > :01:47.Virginia and North Carolina are swing states. In a presidential
:01:47. > :01:51.election, the votes in each state added to find out which candidate
:01:51. > :01:55.has won. Then each state gets a number of votes for their candidate
:01:55. > :02:01.according to their population of. California gets 55, Wyoming gets
:02:01. > :02:04.three. They need 270 to win. Most of the 50 states in the USA have
:02:04. > :02:08.strong majorities in favour of either the president or the
:02:08. > :02:12.Republican Party's Mitt Romney. But at the moment, nine swing states
:02:12. > :02:16.are evenly balanced and could go either way. The most important
:02:16. > :02:20.factor is an election he is usually the economy. When Barack Obama came
:02:21. > :02:30.to power, he inherited terrible economic problems, and a lot of
:02:31. > :02:32.
:02:32. > :02:36.Americans are still finding it tough. Mills and factories once
:02:36. > :02:39.made this place in North Carolina a bustling, rich town. Not any more.
:02:40. > :02:44.Other countries make things more cheaply. Now most of the jobs have
:02:44. > :02:51.gone, and so has nearly everything else. Nathan, you have seen some
:02:52. > :02:59.big changes in this town? Yeah. We have not seen a train in probably
:02:59. > :03:02.two years. The last time we saw it, I was in a class. We heard it go by
:03:02. > :03:08.and everybody came rushing out because we had not seen a train in
:03:08. > :03:13.a year. Why are there no more trains coming a long? Most of the
:03:13. > :03:20.factories and mills that used to be here stopped working. There is no
:03:20. > :03:24.longer any need for any industry or products. This town might never be
:03:24. > :03:27.the same again. The older generation here are genuinely
:03:27. > :03:31.worried that things can only get worse. The American dream is about
:03:32. > :03:36.ordinary families being optimistic, working hard and making a good life
:03:36. > :03:40.for themselves. That dream seems to be slipping away. But despite this,
:03:41. > :03:45.some who have suffered the most are also most likely to vote for Obama.
:03:45. > :03:55.Part of the reason is that in many ways, the United States is actually
:03:55. > :04:04.
:04:04. > :04:08.pretty divided. In 2008, 95% of black people who voted, voted for
:04:08. > :04:14.Obama. To win, he needs to persuade people like these at this Baptist
:04:14. > :04:20.Church in and Zandra, Virginia, to turn out for him again. Right now,
:04:20. > :04:24.this thing is neck-and-neck. What was it like four years ago, when
:04:24. > :04:28.you were watching the telly and saw the results? Oh, my gosh, it was
:04:28. > :04:33.awesome. It was great. First black president of America. I never
:04:33. > :04:39.thought I would see that. I stood in line for two hours, but it was
:04:39. > :04:43.worth it. I am voting for President Obama. He will continue to be a
:04:43. > :04:48.great President, because he is going to win. Have you already
:04:48. > :04:55.voted? Yes, I stood in line for four hours and it was worth every
:04:55. > :04:59.moment, in the rain. That was amazing. I have never experienced a
:04:59. > :05:03.service like that. The support for Barack Obama is clear here. Part of
:05:03. > :05:07.the reason for that lies in America's past. Most black people
:05:07. > :05:13.in the US are descended from Africans brought to America to work
:05:13. > :05:16.as slaves. Slavery was banned in 1865 after the American Civil War,
:05:16. > :05:20.but racism and inequality remained. But people in southern states were
:05:20. > :05:25.prevented from voting and were treated as second-class citizens.
:05:25. > :05:29.It was not until 1964, 100 years after the end of the war, that the
:05:30. > :05:34.Civil Rights Act was finally passed, banning discrimination. This
:05:34. > :05:38.history is why, when Obama was elected in 2008, it was such a
:05:38. > :05:42.massive deal. It explains why he has the support of so many back
:05:42. > :05:51.Americans. But he also has the backing of another growing group of
:05:51. > :05:55.people. A Latin dance class in Richmond, Virginia's gettable. Most
:05:55. > :05:59.of these kids' families did not come from Africa or Europe, but
:05:59. > :06:04.from Mexico, Haiti, Cuba and other Central and South American
:06:04. > :06:09.countries. The Hispanic population in America is growing all the time.
:06:09. > :06:19.They reckon about 70% of the Hispanic population will vote for
:06:19. > :06:28.
:06:28. > :06:33.Barack Obama. Who are you going to America may be a divided country,
:06:33. > :06:37.but it is also a hugely patriotic, and it is places like this that
:06:37. > :06:40.help us understand why. This is the Second World War memorial, just one
:06:40. > :06:46.of the monuments in Washington's National more remembering Americans
:06:46. > :06:50.who have died in action overseas. Standing here, you get a real sense
:06:50. > :06:54.of America's power and position at the centre of world events. That is
:06:54. > :06:57.why the whole world is interested in every presidential election.
:06:57. > :07:01.Around the globe, people feel either protected or threatened by
:07:01. > :07:08.the US, and that is why they want to know what President things about
:07:08. > :07:13.all sorts of world issues, but especially defence. This is about
:07:13. > :07:17.an hour outside America's biggest army base. It is just down the road,
:07:17. > :07:23.and there are lots of families with mums and dads in the armed forces.
:07:23. > :07:27.One of those families' lives here. Time to catch up with them. What is
:07:27. > :07:32.it like having your dad out in a war-zone sometimes? Is it quite
:07:32. > :07:38.difficult for you sometimes? Why? Had because only one parent is
:07:38. > :07:42.there to do everything that normally, two parents would do.
:07:42. > :07:48.Sometimes, the one parent is stressed and irritated because they
:07:48. > :07:51.have to do so much, especially with four kids. Four years ago, you
:07:51. > :07:56.voted for Barack Obama. But recently, you have voted for this
:07:56. > :08:00.election and you voted for Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate.
:08:00. > :08:04.Why the change? When President Obama was running for office the
:08:04. > :08:10.first time, he really was this beacon for people. "I will bring
:08:10. > :08:13.the country back together". At that point, we had been at war for
:08:13. > :08:18.almost eight years. It has been disappointing, and the world
:08:18. > :08:22.remains dangerous. Talking to the family has given me a lot to think
:08:22. > :08:25.about. In a few days I have been here, I have come to realise that
:08:26. > :08:30.the USA is complicated and Americans have very different ideas
:08:30. > :08:34.about the type of man who should be their President. Four years ago,
:08:34. > :08:38.Americans voted for change. The result, it ground-breaking
:08:38. > :08:42.President, Barack Obama. But during my stay here, I have seen a country
:08:42. > :08:46.which is not as confident about the future as it used to be. So can
:08:46. > :08:51.Obama hang on to the top job? Like everyone else, we will have to see