Bush has done something no Democratic Administration has ever done. He's placed two African-Americans in his inner circle of top advisors (Clinton had none), essentially handed them a great portion of the job of crafting and running America's foreign policy.

But perhaps more importantly, for the first time in American history, an African-American has been provided with the opportunity, and the necessary career path, to culminate with a very realistic chance of someday becoming President of the United States. If Colin Powell really wanted the job, he could win it. That could never be said before of any African-American, of either party. That possibility, that door being opened, should mean something in terms of a civil rights achievement.