...by the content of his character...

So here's an NYT article addressing the statistical landscape as we head into the final week. Among the most striking outcomes is this one:

Some perceptions of race are changing, with a marked increase in the number of people who say they believe that white and black people have an equal chance of getting ahead in America today.

The article goes on to detail the difficult landscape for a McCain victory over the next seven days, in case that story remains new or novel to you. Incredible, however, that Obama is leveling perceptions of the racial landscape in measurable ways without having even been elected yet.

**update**

On the other hand, the Houston Chronicle reports that 23% of Texans think Obama is a muslim. The more I think about that, the more incredible it seems. How, at this point, could you possibly still have that misconception? Little short of a willful desire not to believe what you hear on TV, a self-selected media bubble so narrow as to exclude the vast majority of the world's media, or residence under a rock. The mind reels.