Short notes from the campaign trail

• The term suburbia takes on a whole new meaning here in the USA. There are beautifully polished neighbourhoods with rows of new houses, with Stars and Stripes on the front porch, manicured lawns, wide driveways and three cars in the garage. And then there are low income neighbourhoods...
• In the rich neighbourhoods, however, you get the feeling of cocooning, a certain isolation. There are ‘no soliciting’ signs everywhere and many are actually rude, when they open the door. It’s like ‘how dare you step on MY lawn ?’...
• In the poorer neighbourhoods, on the other hand, there’s often a more open attitude. Granted; their guy seems to be winning, and we are the bearers of good news. I’ve been invited into the living room to sit and discuss with a fat, African-American guy in his boxer shorts, I’ve been asked if I didn’t have a dollar to spare, I’ve been asked whether people in jail or on parole can vote, we’ve met and hugged a woman who grew up with Gandhi and whose son is now an undercover FBI agent (!?) and I’ve driven old madam Deloris to the polls because she was SO happy she would have a chance to vote. My point is that these people are much more open and share much more – in the rich neighbourhoods, we never got this close to anyone. I wonder in which category the Danes fall...?

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