The long view from Dumfries to DC

By Jon Kelly
BBC News, Washington DC

Jon Kelly has been following the US election for the BBC

It was the greatest political show on earth, a genuine moment in history - perhaps the most momentous American election ever.

And amid the frenzy of excitement and activity as America chose between John McCain and Barack Obama, at least one lad from Dumfries was watching from the sidelines. Yours truly.

Over the past two months I've been enormously privileged to travel across the US, talking to voters as they made up their minds.

Blogging from the BBC's Talking America bus, I met an assortment of Americans in all their surprising diversity - from female gun enthusiasts in Arizona to ballet dancers in Harlem.

Foregone conclusion

But I spent election night itself in the BBC bureau in Washington DC, waiting to see how their ballots finally stacked up.

The anticipation was palpable. Before polls closed, campaign posters dangled from virtually every lamp-post. Party workers dashed around, striving to get out the vote.

As the results clocked in, Washington whirred with pundits, politicos and analysts. We'd all seen the polls. The result felt a foregone conclusion.

At times the US election could feel a world away from southern Scotland

But there was no mistaking the jubilation - from the blue half of the city, at least - when the final verdict was declared. Obama's supporters sang, danced and cried in the street.

When you're busy working, you can get lost in the demands of the job and take even the most seismic story for granted.

But not this time. America, much of which had endured the brutality of segregation within living memory, was electing its first ever black commander-in-chief.

In many ways, it did feel a long way from home. Elections in southern Scotland tend not to feature mass rallies or billion-dollar advert campaigns. The world's media doesn't pay us quite the same attention.

The Americans I met on my travels were much more likely to be fiercely partisan, too. Staunch liberals and conservatives alike told me how their man would transform the nation for the better, and his opponent would wreck it with his lunatic schemes.

Well-informed

Everywhere I travelled there were lawn signs, t-shirts and bumper stickers proclaiming allegiance to the Republican or Democratic cause.

Your average Gallovidian or Borderer might be equally well-informed. Turnout rates might be the same or higher on polling day.

But back in the Scottish deep south, discussion of politics and politicians is far more likely to be met with a shrug of the shoulders, a sigh that they're a' the same.

Still, there were plenty of reminders of home. I travelled to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, a town that had changed its name from Hot Springs after a popular radio game show promised to give it some much-needed publicity in return.

There were some moments Jon was reminded of his home town

Rural communities like the one I grew up in often find it hard to get on the national media's map, too.

In Sweetwater, Texas, the big talking point was wind farms, a huge issue back home.

And everywhere I encountered voters who were worried about the effect of the economic downturn on their jobs and homes - just as I would in Galashiels or New Galloway.

Not all of this was unexpected, however. As a good Doonhamer, I'd been schooled to read my Burns: a man's a man, for a' that.

I might not get to vote here. But this is an election that will have a direct impact on my country - on every country in the world.

The 44th President of the USA's strategies for tackling the global economic turmoil, and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, will make their mark on us all.

And while I observed all the ritz and the razzmatazz as the world's most powerful country picked its leader, I didn't feel there was too much distance between me and my ain. They'd be watching closely too, after all.