This 2008 election, the buzz is all about the potential for iconic “firsts.” As we’ve all… This 2008 election, the buzz is all about the potential for iconic “firsts.” As we’ve all been hearing anon, for the first time in America’s history, there is actually a significant chance that our next president may be someone other than a rich WASP. Of course, there was already Kennedy to technically break that mold with his oh-so-radical Irish Catholicism, but seriously, that doesn’t make him all that different.

2008 won’t be a fun year to be a male WASP if you’re a Democratic candidate. Much of the Democratic base is hungry for something different this time. John Kerry’s ho-hum 2004 campaign left a bad, boring taste in their mouths, and Hillary and Obama are offering them just the thing to banish that taste – the excitingly real prospect of electing the next Jackie Robinson of American politics.

Of course, Hillary and Obama don’t hold a monopoly on the minority card. Another Democratic candidate, New Mexico’s governor Bill Richardson, has some Hispanic background he can point to. The Republicans