A key narrative in last week's campaign focused not on Barack Obama and John McCain themselves, but on two people whose public roles reflect crucial challenges facing the candidates--Michelle Obama and George Bush.

A new analysis of public school enrollment data by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that in the dozen years from 1993-94 to 2005-06, white students became significantly less isolated from minority students while, at the same time, black and Hispanic students became slightly more isolated from white students.