Many analysts suggested that changing voter attitudes can best be measured in choices for governors, since they, like presidents, are judged as chief executives, rather than legislators. There will be one black governor next year -- Deval L. Patrick in Massachusetts, the second in the nation since Reconstruction.By contrast, women will be governors of nine states, including Washington, Arizona and Michigan, all potential battleground states in 2008, a fact that is no doubt viewed favorably by advisers to Mrs. Clinton.In the past 85 years, 27 women have been elected or appointed governor -- 24 of them since 1975 -- compared to just two African-Americans. And, also in the past 85 years, 35 women have served in the U.S. Senate, compared to just three African-Americans (one of whom was also female). So twelve times as many women as African-Americans have served as their state's chief executives, and close to12 times as many have served in the U.S. Senate. Winning the presidency means nothing more than winning a series of statewide contests, and I think the pattern of performance in such contests here is pretty clear.
That said, Obama has already begun to appeal to people in ways that are unprecedented. And history doesn't always have to be taken as a guide. Precedents are useful for thinking about pitfalls on the path forward, but if people took them too seriously society would never evolve. In New Hampshire Sunday, Obama asked people to remember that America itself was, at one point in its past, also without precedent. Matt Y., writing about the weekend's Obamarama, said: "I'm still a bit unclear from the coverage what, exactly, Obama said." You can read my take on the politics of the visit here, but after thinking about it it seems to me that the essence of the Obama message is that he is asking people to be brave and to be one nation and to imagine and create a better society. He's not just saying the words -- he's really asking them to do it, because if they can't do it, he can't win.
That's pretty much it.
(Walter Shapiro has a more in-depth take here.)
--Garance Franke-Ruta