US campaign could smash social barriers in 2008

WASHINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) American voters have a chance to shatter social barriers in 2008, when either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton could snap the unbroken string of white men in the White House.

Obama, vying to be the first black president, and Clinton, expected to launch a bid to be the first woman president, bring diversity to a pack of presidential contenders that could test attitudes and tolerance among US voters.

Despite huge political strides in recent years, no black or woman candidate has seriously challenged for the White House.

The campaigns of Obama and Clinton, early Democratic favorites, could help answer questions about whether America is ready to put a black or a woman in the Oval Office.

''I think the country is at a point where voters will seriously look at a black or a woman candidate and support them if they like what they see,'' said David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which researches issues affecting blacks.

''The change in public attitudes is massive and real and it can be seen in the number of women and blacks being elected to office around the country,'' said Tom Smith, director of social surveys at the National Opinion Research Center.

Those numbers have grown in the last decade, capped by Democrat Nancy Pelosi's rise to become the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives.

A black woman, Condoleezza Rice, is secretary of state. The number of women in Congress, state legislatures and governor's offices grew to record levels in November.

Polls show a steady increase to more than 90 per cent in the number of Americans who would vote for a black or woman president, although surveys could be skewed by voters' tendency to tell pollsters what they think is socially correct.

''There has been a huge increase in social acceptance and tolerance and professed willingness to vote for a woman or for an African American,'' said Karlyn Bowman, a public opinion analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

''But it's difficult to know exactly how much resistance there is because we know people give socially correct responses to pollsters about many things,'' she said.

OTHER BIDS FOR HISTORY Other candidates also could make bids for history. Democrat Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, is expected to attempt to be the first Hispanic president, while Republican candidate and former Massachusetts Gov Mitt Romney would become the first Mormon.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, and Clinton, a former first lady elected in November to her second Senate term from New York, shrug off worries about the role of race and gender in their campaigns.

''We still have prejudice in our midst,'' Obama said in a recent CNN interview, adding he thought a majority of Americans would judge a candidate on ideas and character.

''I don't know whether we're ready or not, but I think at some point we need to try,'' Clinton said of electing a woman to the White House.

The United States has lagged behind other countries in putting women in top political offices, as leaders like Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Indira Gandhi in India made history decades ago.

Ellen Moran, executive director of Emily's List, a group that helps Democratic women who back abortion rights, said attitudes have changed as voters see more women leaders.

''Women are making great gains. The next logical step is to see a woman in the White House,'' Moran said. ''Americans have little hesitation now to support women at all levels of government.'' While civil rights leader Jesse Jackson earned support and won eight Democratic primaries in 1984 and 1988, he never seriously threatened to win the nomination.

Bositis said polls showed Colin Powell, the black former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would have been a strong presidential contender in 1996, when he considered and rejected a Republican bid.

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