Countdown to history

Within 24 hours of this posting America will have indicated its preference for its first African-American president.
RealClearPolitics shows Obama with a 278-132 lead in electoral votes among states whose polls are outside the margin of error one way or another. When throwing every state to one candidate or another, regardless of margin of error, puts Obama way over the top at 338-200.
Obama's election would be a pretty remarkable feat considering it was barely 45 years ago that blacks couldn't even be assured the opportunity to vote in every part of this country.
No less than Ward Connerly - he of crusades against racial preferences - even proffers hope at Obama's election, in that it could mean a fundamental change in the definition of Affirmative Action. Connerly seems to think Obama would shift this definition from racial to socio-economic.
This is something I've said for years; that one's ethnicity doesn't enable him to inject "diversity" into any setting, but one's socio-economic status does.
Consider: Two kids - one black and one white - could grow up next door to each other, go to the same schools and graduate from the same college with the same degree, and some companies would be more likely to hire the black kid just because he represents "diversity."
Continuing to focus on race-based diversity ignores the significant gains minorities have made, socially and economically.
Shifting that focus to classes of Americans who are struggling with the emasculating effects of joblessness and poverty, however, could be just the change our country needs.