The selection of the Democratic presidential candidate in the first half of 2008 was in some respects more important than the general election in November: It was almost certain that the winner of the Democratic contest would be elected next U.S. President, too. And for the first time in U.S. history this would be a woman or an African-American. Although Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner in the invisible primary all over 2007, in the end Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination. Besides his many skills and good fortune Obama proved to be more comfortable with his identity than Clinton was with hers. White racism no longer a hurdle, Obama overcame the much more dangerous "racism in the heads" of an older generation of black politicians and ministers with his successful campaign. Clinton, on the other hand, seemed to be a prisoner of sexist perceptions that the American society, the media and even her own campaign cultivated of her as a women's libber, a legacy problem acquired as First Lady. Only in a few rare moments she managed to escape this role attribution. But her "masculine-gendered campaign" reinforced this stereotype and antagonized many of the Democratic superdelegates who united behind Obama.