What do voters in Barack Obama's home state, Illinois, say about him? And what do voters in John McCain's state of Arizona say about their senator? In two programmes, Robin Lustig finds out by talking to pro- and anti- voters in each place. He then brings them together to hear them debate head-to-head the respective merits of the rivals for the White House.
In Chicago, Robin meets interfaith community worker Eileen and ex-soldier turned dentist Mark. Two thousand miles away in Phoenix, Arizona, we get to know social worker Colleen and estate agent Tim. They tell us about their lives, their values, and why they've decided either to support - or not to support - their local candidate.
By talking to four very different people, Robin delves beneath the surface of the election debate. By learning their stories, we also learn something about the very different cities that have helped to shape Barack Obama and John McCain:
Chicago: Vibrant, rumbustious, a bastion of left-of-centre Democratic Party politics. It was once an industrial giant, to which black labourers migrated from the Deep South, looking for work and singing the blues.
Phoenix: One of the fastest growing cities in the country is now a sprawling metropolis, even bigger than Los Angeles. It's a city characterised by its long, straight boulevards ribboning out into the Arizona desert, its air-conditioned shopping malls and drive-through fast food outlets. If Chicago was once a bastion of organised union labour, Phoenix is now a bastion of Wild West high-tech individualism.
17 September - programme times (Wednesday Documentary)
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