FROM PROGRAMME PRODUCER LIZ GIBBONS
Hello,
US ELECTION COUNTDOWN Jeremy Paxman is in Washington tonight for a special Newsnight.
With fewer than 24 hours to go before voters in America go to the polls, both presidential candidates are campaigning in states where the result could go either way. Pollsters are predicting a win for the Democrat, Barack Obama. But his rival, John McCain says support for him is growing.
Jeremy spent last week in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a fascinating feature tonight, he will assess just how it's come to a point where a southern, white state which hasn't been Democrat since 1976 now appears to be on the verge of turning in a majority vote for a northern black liberal. He investigates the role that race, the economy and insecurity have played in the campaign, and speaks to Republican contender Mike Huckabee and the rapper Usher - both out on the stump in Charlotte.
You can see a preview of Jeremy's encounter with the R&B star here: He'll be joined live from Chicago by civil rights leader and former Democrat presidential nominee, Jesse Jackson. Does he agree with author Toni Morrison, who told Kirsty Wark on Friday's programme that an Obama victory would be a victory, principally, for white America?
Watch the Toni Morrison interview here: We've sent David Grossman to Pennsylvania - a state the Democrats held in 2004 which John McCain has to win in order to stand a chance of getting into the White House. McCain has been campaigning hard there all week - he's in the industrial town of Pittsburgh today, and so are we.
To round off the show Jeremy will reflect on the key turning points of this fascinating campaign with Democrat pollster, Stan Greenberg, former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, Ann Lewis, John McCain's former campaign manager Terry Nelson, and George Bush's former spokesman Trent Duffy.
Do join Jeremy for what promises to be a great programme.
Liz Gibbons
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