>>I rang doorbells for Obama in some minority neighborhoods. I've done a lot of canvassing and I've never seen anything like the zeal I found for Obama in those neighborhoods.
>>McCain and Romney never had a chance.
>>The closest I can recall was the zeal I found for JFK in Catholic neighborhoods.
>
>Why do you suppose you saw such zeal? Why didn't McCain or Romney have a chance?

A friend runs a picture framing shop here in Hamilton. She was swamped with orders from black families for framed pictures of Obama.
That fervor doesn't show up in the polling data but the people I spoke to would have demanded to be allowed to vote for him from their death beds.
When you energize any group like that, things happen.
Obama got 100% percent of the vote in several precincts in Phila in both elections.
That's unheard of.

It was clear that minorities saw Obama as a game changer, and he was.
Not a game changer in what he accomplished as president -very little of tangible value really- but in the perception by minorities of their position in the society and what they can accomplish.
That is huge and it will be more important than any tangible results he might have produced.