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