US election fever rocks Guam

And now for a professional first. After 18 years as a foreign correspondent, I finally get the chance to write, however briefly, about...Guam.

Bill Clinton made it to Guam during his presidency

In a contest where every delegate counts, the tiny Pacific US territory and its 175,000 people are this weekend revelling in their moment in the election sun as the epicentre of the election race. (Ok, slight hyperbole alert)Guam is known to most Americans as the site of major Navy and Air Force bases and scene of a major battle with Japanese forces in World War II. And now as an election battleground.

Polls in the Democratic caucuses on Saturday closed there before the rest of the US woke up – this after all is the island that bills itself “Where America’s Day Begins”. Actually, to be entirely accurate, residents of one village voted a week ago because today clashes with the annual fiesta – and there was only going to be one winner in that scheduling conflict.

Now the cable news channels are eagerly awaiting exit poll indications (official results are not due until Sunday morning local time, which is nine hours ahead of London and 14 ahead of Washington) and interviewing excited local Democratic officials by phone.

At stake are four delegates. That was enough for both campaigns to lobby hard for votes, although neither candidate managed to slot the 20-hour each way flight into their schedule.

Barack Obama is practically a local boy – he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia and was brought up in Hawaii. He told the Pacific Daily News that those roots make him "especially sensitive" to the needs of islanders and his camp sent three staffers to the island to whip up support.

And Hillary Clinton has called for locals - who I’ve just learned are called Guamanians - to have the right to vote in presidential elections rather than just the nomination process. She also fondly recalled her trip there as First Lady in 1995 (no hint of a sniper fire, thankfully) in a video message to islanders.

But away from the would-you-believe-it factor, the fact that even tiny Guam is playing its role in the nomination battle is a tribute to this uniquely American election process. Some folks might think that this has been going on too long. I doubt that Guamanians would agree...