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Bob Herbert captures the spirit of the great milestone American has achieved with the overwhelming support in the primaries for a black man and a white woman:

The United States n 1968 [when both RFK and MLK were assassinated] was a stunningly different place from the country we know now, so different that most of today's young people would have trouble imagining it. The notion in '68 that a black person - or a woman - might have a serious shot at the presidency would have been widely viewed as lunacy.

No argument here. But this is what grabbed me:

[The night Obama clinched the nomination] a middle-aged black man came to my apartment door with a food delivery. I'd seen him before, but he'd never said much, just sort of grunted a hello and a thank you. This time, after handing me the package and counting out change, he asked, shyly: "Did Mr. Obama win the nomination?"

"Yes," I said. "He won."

"For sure?"

I said yes, and suddenly the widest grin spread across the delivery man's face. It was as though he'd been holding that grin in some hidden depth of emotional reserve for the entire campaign.

And possibly his entire life.