Break from the "Old Boy" tradition?

So the world might finally see a woman (Hillary Clinton) (I believe it has happened before, but do not remember any hoopla around it!) and an African-American (Barack Obama) (This I do not remember ever happening though a lot of folks wanted Colin Powell to run, if my memory serves right, but never happened) running for Presidency of the Worlds most powerful nation!

So has the US decided to break away from the "Old Boy" network that most US presidents are from? I used "Old Boy" here, even after knowing that it is very British, but after all, it was the British that was once ruling America - where will the tradition go?

There are so many polls being conducted by various media whether the citizens of the country are ready for such a big change! It sounds ridiculous - I am sure the electorate of any country would not mind who si in charge if the nation is well led!

Well pardon me, but its not really as if the USA is the first country to have a minority as a head of state (and I use the word loosely - I am not sure if Women can be called a minority at all!).

Britian had a Margaret Thatcher, Germany now has Angela Merkel. Even third world developing countries had people like Eva Peron, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir (though I am not sure if Israel qualified as a Third World country at the time), Chandrika Kumaratunga, Benazir Bhutto etc. It wasn't such a big deal for those countries - India, even today, has a Sikh (Dr. Manmohan Singh) as the Prime Minister and a Muslim (Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam) as the President! Even the current Pakistani President, Musharaff is a Mohajir (Indian Muslim moved to Pakistan during Partition)!

So why is this really such a big deal in the USA? This is really the first time that the so called "Old Boy network" is being broken to get some fresh perspective in American politics.

If Condoleeza Rice decides to run (is in fact being denied vehemently by her!), it could be a mouth watering prospect to watch 2 women fighting for the Presidency in 2008, though Hillary Clinton might fall back on the Bill Clinton Old-Boy network!