May 6, 2008--As I sat up last night, waiting for the returns from Gary, Ind., I kept thinking of Dr. Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

Experts once thought it was impossible to run that far that fast, but after Bannister's feat in 1954 it quickly became routine.  These days even high school kids run much faster.

Something similar could be in the offing for presidential politics after Sen. Barack Obama's strong showing in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries put him within reach of locking up the Democratic nomination.  If, as now seems almost inevitable, he becomes his party's standard-bearer, one of the most impenetrable of all glass ceilings will have been breached, and what was once thought politically impossible will no longer seem so unreachable.  Even if he never wins the White House, future presidential campaigns will look more like America, and less like a good old boys club.

That means that we'll have not only female and black candidates, but hopefuls from every ethnic group who ever dreamed of reaching the White House.  Jews, Hispanics and all manner of hyphenated-Americans will tell their kids of both genders that they can run for president and really mean what they say.  Thanks to Obama-- and his rival, Hillary Clinton-- rising generations will consider all-male, all-white fields of candidates to be just as implausible as whites-only restrooms and water fountains do now, more like myth than real history.

Once again, America will be in debt to blacks for demanding that our country live up to its founding myth.  As always, we are the ones to hold up a mirror to the nation, illustrating the gap between what it promised and what it delivered.  But, as has happened so frequently in the past, others may benefit from the changes our pressure brought about more quickly than we will.

That's not because, as some skeptics contend, Obama is an imperfect vessel of black aspirations. The real reason is what might be called the Tiger Woods Syndrome.  Because few black golfers have access to the country clubs where the best players learn the game, we only have one Tiger.  Similarly, because only a handful of black politicians are positioned to take full advantage of the openings created by his success, we're likely to have only one Barack for a while.

Presidential candidates are traditionally drawn from the ranks of state governors or the Senate, where our numbers are miniscule.  A once-in-a-lifetime candidate like Obama can race to the head of the pack with relatively little experience or previous national exposure. The black candidates who follow in his footsteps will not be so blessed. They will have to work their way up the political ladder, gaining the experience in state-wide offices they need to be plausible White House contenders.

It may take a generation or more for them to get there, but they will.  Obama's climb makes that a certainty.  Even if he doesn't make it all the way to the White House, having blacks,  women, or Hispanics or white ethnics run for president will eventually be as routine as a four-minute mile.

Jack White is a former columnist at TIME magazine.

Also on The Root:

Jack White's "Less Like Jigga, More Like Mike", "Renounce Me, Obama!", and "If Clinton Were a Man...".

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