Historic? Cool.

Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama (by Evan Vucci/AP)
Originally uploaded by Stijn Vogels

[A conversation in the car while driving to school, listening to NPR]

"Who's Barack Obama?"

"He's a gentleman who's likely to be the next president of the United States."

"What about that girl that you were listening to before?"

"Hillary Clinton? You're right, she has a pretty good chance to be the next president instead."

"Huh?"

"Well, in November everybody in the country is going to pick who the next president is. Right now, there are a bunch of people -- called Democrats -- trying to decide who they want to vote for in November. We call these the primaries. If Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic primary, there's a pretty good chance she'll be the president. If Barack Obama wins, there's a pretty good chance he'll be the president."

"You know what, Daddy? On the presidents wall in Ms. Shanaz's classrom, where all the presidents are, there aren't any girls there yet and if Hillary Clinton wins Ms. Shanaz will get to put a picture of a girl on the wall!"

"That's true! And I don't know if you noticed, but there's nobody with dark skin, like Kamsi or Pauline up there either. And if Barack wins, he'll be the first person with dark skin on that wall, which would also be pretty cool. Either way, you're going to be telling your children and grandchildren about this election."

"Why?"

"Because this will probably be the first time either a woman or a black man gets to be the president of the United States. It's historic."

"Cool."