Monday Afternoon, Chicago

The sun is shining here in Chicago, Illinois and there is a real buzz in the air on this fantastic autumn afternoon.

Just a short distance from my hotel, one of the largest media operations that I’ve ever witnessed is being put in place.

This being Barack Obama’s home city, this is where, dare I say it, the venue is being prepared for the victory celebrations for the 44th President of the United States.

Either this is going to be one of biggest parties Chicago has seen in recent history or there is going to be a wake the kind that has never been seen in this city.

The Obama Campaign has invited up to 70,000 people to the election night celebrations at the Lower Hutchinson Field at Grant Park right down at the lake shore.

But the Mayor of the city is preparing for another staggering 1m to 1.5m people to turn up outside the park itself to join in the celebrations.

The number of media people involved in covering the event is around 7,000.

Everyone is here to record the moment in US history when the first African-American is elected president.

If all goes according to plan Obama should take the stage in the early hours of Wednesday morning (Irish time) to deliver his acceptance speech. A moment that will be etched in history forever.

But could all of this go horribly wrong for the Democratic Party and the Obama Campaign?

If John McCain were to stage the greatest comeback since Lazarus then it would surely spoil the Chicago party.

And in that case, God only knows what might happen in this city tomorrow evening.

Either way it is going to be an interesting 24 hours in Chicago.

But as of now the atmosphere here is palpable…Chicago is bracing itself for another amazing chapter in its history.

Posted at 09:47PM Nov 03, 2008

Wall-to-wall campaigning

So we love our politics at home. We treat it as a bit of blood sport. Our general election campaigns normally last about three to four weeks. Indeed, if it's of four weeks duration we consider that a long campaign…a life-time sentence.

So just imagine what it must be like for the voters in the United States.

This presidential race has, believe it or not, gone on for almost two years...well certainly for almost a year. A whole year!

And what's even worse, or better depending on your point of view, is the amount of television coverage of the campaign.

It's wall-to-wall and I mean wall-to-wall. It appears to be never ending, relentless. Switch on the telly at any time of the day and you'll see John McCain, Sarah Palin, Joe Biden or Barack Obama looking out at you and delivering the same speech they've delivered for the past month.

God, if I hear John McCain utter the words 'yes my friends' again...I'll...

And as for Barack Obama talking about the need for change...please please don't say it again Barack.

Oh then there are the opinion polls. Everyday, every hour there seems to be a new poll - national polls, state-wide polls. Each time you wake up there is a tsunami of polls and within a few minutes of the arrival of the new poll there is someone there to spin, and I mean spin, an interpretation of that poll.

Most television stations have their own Democratic and Republican Party spinners or pundits and they'd put the Irish versions of party commentators, or pundits into the ha'penny place.

In many instances there is no such thing as balance.

But for all the madness of this election there is a serious side to what's happening in this presidential race.

The voters across this vast country seem to be engaged as never before in the electoral process.

Already it's estimated that some 30 million people have cast their ballots in early voting in some 32 states where early voting is allowed. So no such thing as voter turn off in this election.

The television images are already remarkable. Long lines of people, young and old waiting patiently to cast their ballot in, yes wait for it, the word historic, a historic election that could change the face of American politics for ever.

Sometimes we can be rightly cynical of the electoral process, and sometimes the word historic can be over used.

But what's going to happen next Tuesday in America is going to be truly historic in American politics and also for the rest of the world.

Posted at 10:41AM Nov 01, 2008

Charlie Bird's Blog

Check back over the weekend for more on the US election

Posted at 05:32PM Oct 31, 2008