Pre-Election Warm-Up, Main Street, Carbondale, Illinois, September 2004; or, Lionel Britton and Barack Obama

On this side of the road stand the Republicans, on the other the Democrats. The former hoped for a second Bush term; the latter (as the buttons yelled) hoped to 're-defeat Bush'. Many Democrats woke up with sore heads after the result.

On the flight back from Chicago to Heathrow, I sat next to a university librarian: my precious hand luggage was crammed with photocopies from the Lionel Britton Collection at Southern Illinois University, whereas he was hoping to bag a number of books by obscure Scandinavian writers. He was reading an autobiography by a guy I'd never heard of: Barack Obama. Senator Obama was wowing them in Chicago, I learned, but I was very dubious about the president thing. 'Do you really think America is ready for a black president?' I asked him. He did. I now believe he's right.

So let's hope that America gets it right this time. Although – as I've suggested way down below somewhere – I hope too that, after a possible two terms, history really will be kind to Obama and see him as far more than a symbol of change.