Analysis: Obama Shows a Black Can Win

Democrat Barack Obama has put to rest the question of whether a black presidential candidate can win in white America.

His victory in 95 percent white Iowa proved that he could appeal across racial lines and even draw women away from Hillary Rodham Clinton despite her push for them to make her the first female president. Next he'll try to build on his record in New Hampshire, which is 96 percent white.

Obama did not appeal so openly to make history as the first black to occupy the Oval Office; he rarely mentioned that he was black.

"You've got to have hope if you are a black man named Obama running for the presidency of the United States of America," Obama said during a late-night campaign stop two days before the caucus. It was one of his rare mentions of what he had to overcome.