I read an astonishing piece of research this morning in my regular e-mail from The White House Project, a women’s political advocacy group whose slogan is “Add Women, Change Everything.” In a study conducted before the most recent presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and Sarah Palin, one in four kids (age 5-10) think it’s illegal for women and minorities to be elected president. And three in four of them think that gender and racial bias is the reason there hasn’t been a woman, African-American or other minority president.

When you look at what kids see in their history books, it’s not too surprising they think presidents can only be white guys, but, as the researcher who did the study points out, no one really tries to explain to them that it’s possible for the president to look different. I wonder what will happen if this research is repeated after Election Day 2008? Surely kids’ perceptions of what’s possible will have changed. Won’t they?