Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama speaks at a rally in the pouring rain at Widener University Main Quad in Chester, Pennsylvania, yesterday. - AP

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP):

Political allegiances are as divided as football loyalties in the United States heartland, home to deeply depressed economies, middle America values and profound doubts about whether either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain will be able to reverse the worst financial turmoil this country has seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"I don't want four more years of Republicans, let alone eight," said independent Craig Phipps, echoing nearly everyone else decked out in Ohio State University gear during a pre-game "tailgate" party outside the sports stadium.

All but one in this group agreed when Phipps said: "McCain is no different than President Bush."

Across the parking lot, under a Purdue University tent, it was McCain who was the favourite - by default, it seems. Obama, although a fellow Midwesterner, "doesn't understand our values at all - even though Chicago's in the Midwest," said Tami Lee.

She's a Democrat who once backed Obama but later became disenchanted with him.

Echoing doubts

With the November 4 election six days away, there were still plenty of undecided voters in this swath of tailgaters, many of whom echo the doubts of Shannon Wells: "I'm not convinced that either one of them can change anything."

This is how many distill their choices: Obama, a first-term Democratic senator from liberal Chicago who is 47 years old and would be the country's first black president.

McCain, a 72-year-old, four-term Republican senator running to succeed an unpopular president when most people think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Neither one, it seems to these voters, offers much hope for an economic turnaround.

The political winds strongly favour Obama, though Republicans and Democrats alike say McCain still has a shot.

Most national polls show Obama with a lead of varying degrees but some, including an Associated Press-GfK survey, show the race a dead heat.