Obamaniacs flock to see a glimpse of the chosen one

"Please welcome to the stage the next President of the United States, BA-RAAACK OBAM-AAAAH!" And there he is, trotting into view with racehorse energy before the first outstretched hands slow him to a crawl. He works his way along the gangway, and finally makes it to the microphones. "Thank you. Thank you," he says, emphasising the "you". He seems to get skinnier by the week.

This is Friday night – Hallowe'en – in Highland, a town in the north-west corner of Indiana, not far from Chicago, where Mr Obama lives. He has just snuck in some family time to trick or treat with his two daughters. But now it's back to business. Indiana is one of those red states that just might turn blue on Tuesday. It will take only a few to put this man in the White House.

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"You know that the time for change has come," he tells them. Then Obama the university lecturer embarks on a little treatise on what hope actually means – "that thing deep down inside of us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are better times ahead of us". It is a line he has been polishing now for days, if not weeks. And his audiences always get it, and love it.

They say the voters grow to hate us, the "liberal elite" media, during an election season. I have seen glimpses of this, usually in Republican crowds; it became a minor theme at their convention in St Paul. Thank you Sarah Palin for encouraging delegates to wave their angry fingers at us, the wretched scribblers. But we can't afford to return the favour. Don't look at Obama as he starts to speak tonight, but look at them – tens of thousands of faces in the night, all turned up, wearing the same glad, excited smile.

It's been like this since the very beginning and Obama reminds us of it tonight. It was January 2007 when he showed up on the steps of the old state house in Springfield, Illinois, and declared he was running for president. It was minus 13C and most reporters could barely hold their pencils. But an estimated 15,000 people showed up to share the moment.

No one can easily argue that these elections are not too long and too expensive. The money flows are murky; the television advertising is nasty and, in battleground states anyway, numbing in its quantity. Yet, watch this protracted orgy of democracy and be humbled. New Hampshire, first in the primaries, is famous for keeping the candidates at the level of real retail politics. I recall one retired couple in Salem, in the south of the state, queuing outside a school gym to listen to Hillary Clinton. They planned to see every candidate and had read every book each of them had written.

But the retailing doesn't end after New Hampshire. Today, Obama and John McCain are still out there, imploring and shaking hands. Many of the voters read, study and show up. On Wednesday, I stood among 60,000 in Kissimmee, Florida, to witness Obama and Bill Clinton embrace at last. And the show went beyond midnight. The police are putting tonight's crowd in Highland at 40,000. By Tuesday, the number of voters who have seen Obama in the flesh will have reached the millions upon millions.

This election is special, of course. A few months ago, the country thought it might elect its first woman president. Now it is contemplating an African-American in the White House. Or a war hero who, as Arnold Schwarzenegger reminded us on Friday, spent more time in a PoW camp than Obama has spent in the US Senate, and whose running mate would be the first woman vice-president.

Early voting numbers, in neighbouring Illinois for instance, have been huge. "The election is off the charts," says David Orr, the clerk of Cook County, which encompasses Chicago. Also off the charts is the passion felt by supporters of both candidates.

There are undecideds still out there – 7 per cent of the electorate, according to one poll last week. I wonder about Anna Hannemann, 34, and Kevin O'Malley, 27, two friends in Cleveland, Ohio. We watched the last of the three Obama-McCain debates on television together and when it was over they were still dithering. Anna wanted to vote for McCain, but couldn't get past his "horrible" choice of Palin.

But talk here tonight to Alvin Holmes, a retired postman from Merrillville, Indiana, about Obama. Mr Holmes, 69, is unwell. He urgently needs a kidney transplant and his wife, Bernadette, 63, has been identified as a suitable donor. "Now I know why he has been so good to me for 45 years," she jokes, but tearfully, "because I am the bearer of his kidney." Yet Mr Holmes, an African-American, has put off his operation until after this Tuesday. Seeing Obama elected first is too important. If Obama loses? "It would be devastating for the country and for the world," he says.

Or ask heavily pregnant Jennifer Clark and her husband, Tom Ratcliffe, what possessed them to wait three hours in an autumn chill tonight to see Obama. Jennifer, a psychologist, is clearly about to pop. But Tom, 37, explains that it is precisely because he and his wife are about to have their first baby that electing Obama is so important. "It is fantastic for us to imagine our child growing up in a United States where, in his lifetime, there will always have been at least one African-American president."

The privilege of reporting a US election is meeting Alvin, Jennifer, Bernadette, Anna and, yes, even Joe. If McCain wins on Tuesday, my encounter in a leafy Ohio suburb with Joe Wurzelbacher – better known as Joe the Plumber – may turn out to have been among the more important, though he will have to compete with Palin, who 14 months ago invited me to coffee in her Wasilla kitchen.

But the moment arrives at every rally when the reporter must retreat and let the voters absorb the moment. It is time now in Highland. The rituals have begun. "The Star Spangled Banner" is mangled one more time and state politicians have had their turns speaking. We know that Obama is in the house because Reggie Love, his faithful "body man", is checking on the microphones and the Swat guys are on the U-Haul vans, scanning the crowd with night-vision binoculars.

And then we are off. "BA- RAAACK OBAM-AAAAH!"

Family misfortune: Barack 'unaware' his aunt was in US illegally

Barack Obama's campaign said yesterday he was unaware that his aunt from Kenya had been living in the US illegally, and declared that immigration laws covering the situation should be followed.

Zeituni Onyango is the half-sister of Mr Obama's late father. Last week she was discovered living in a rundown area of south Boston, and it was revealed yesterday that an immigration judge ordered her to leave the country four years ago, after rejecting her request for asylum from Kenya.

Mr Obama's campaign said Ms Onyango had contacted him two years ago to say she was in Boston, but he had not seen her since 2004, and was unaware of her immigration status.

The Democratic candidate's staff said it was returning $260 that his aunt had contributed in small amounts to his presidential bid. Ms Onyango, 56, who listed her employer as the Boston Housing Authority, last gave $5 on 19 September, but it is illegal in the US for foreigners to make political donations.

Although illegal immigration is a controversial issue, an adviser to Republican John McCain's campaign said Ms Onyango's case was "a family matter".

Leonard Doyle

Party time: Where Britain's US expats will gather

Three hundred thousand Americans live in Britain, so voters and keen observers of US affairs will be staying up through the night.

The US embassy will hold its traditional party on 4 November. The great and the good of the American community in London mingle with the press, academics and Democrat and Republican representatives.

Then there's the Progressive Vision party at Yate's Wine Bar in Leicester Square. The Flea Pit, on Columbia Road in east London, is holding a party for Obama volunteers, and the Chicago Rib Shack, in Knightsbridge, will have its 56th election party. The East Room in Shoreditch offers "food, booze, coffee and pancakes right through the night".

The Oxford Union has an election night gathering, as does the Cambridge Union. Hove is getting itself into the spirit with a party at the Old Market.

In Manchester, Obama supporters will be getting together, and in Edinburgh, the Native State bar will host an Edinburgh Politics Society social.

Hugo Fildes

Highs and lows from the stump

Most embarrassing moment

"Stand up, Chuck, let 'em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about?" Joe Biden to Missouri state senator Chuck Graham, who is wheelchair-bound.

Biggest turnaround

Hillary Clinton sheds a tear in New Hampshire and wins the Democratic primary on 8 January. If she had lost, her campaign would have been over in a week.

Worst decision

John McCain: Picking Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Dirtiest ad

"There is no God." Soundtrack of a female voice over a picture of Kay Hagan, Democratic candidate for a Senate seat in North Carolina. Except the voice isn't Hagan's.

Most memorable phrase

Sarah Palin: "What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick." Not to be confused with Obama saying a few days later: "You can put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." (He was talking about McCain's economic plan, of course.)

Worst gaffe

"They're our next-door neighbours and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska." Moose-shooting Sarah Palin.

Best endorsement

Former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell for Barack Obama, calling him "a generational change".

Worst photo

McCain's grimace as he took the wrong way off the stage after the final debate with Obama.

Biggest waste of money

Palin's $150,000 wardrobe, and $23,000 to a make-up artist to put lipstick on the pit bull.

We'll be glad to see the back of...

Joe the Plumber, his name's not Joe and he isn't a proper plumber, but that hasn't stopped him getting an agent.

Worst outfit

Obama wearing what can only be described as "mom" jeans, a rare misstep for Mr Sartorial. He replaced the pale, high-waisted pair with cooler baggies for an appearance in Pennsylvania last week.