Anything really new will come after she is in the White House again. Four years or eight? Eight straight or two different reigns?

many Democrats–including African-American Dems–are worried that America isn’t “ready” for a black President

This has long been utter nonsense. Since the earlier Iraq War (and for that matter, possibly since 2003), plenty of Americans were and still are ready to vote for a President Powell. On one of the few times I had watched television in the past several years (too much garbage to merit it to any real extent), on C-SPAN I saw a bookseller’s or book-related convention and the highlighted speakers were Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton, easily holding everyone else’s attention and dwarfing everyone else in the room.