Read Wineke's blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.

The eight-column headline of the Wisconsin State Journal on April 6, 1960 marked the beginning of a political era.

"Winner Kennedy Pockets Six of 10 State Districts," the headline proclaimed. It was accompanied by a second headline announcing the paper was publishing a "4 A.M. Extra."

Sen. John F. Kennedy had just defeated Minnesota Sen. Hubert Humphrey, a man often considered to be "Wisconsin's third senator," particularly by state Democrats in the years of Republican rule, in the Wisconsin primary. He went on, as we all know, to be elected president of the United States.

Though Kennedy was well-known at the time and was considered a front-runner for the presidential nomination, it was by no means sure that he could beat Humphrey in Wisconsin, but his victory here, and later in West Virginia, pretty much guaranteed that a Catholic could capture votes in largely Protestant states.

Even though his achievement record was somewhat spotty, Kennedy's influence on the country was enormous, in part because of the people he inspired to join the political system. Among them were a young man named William Jefferson Clinton and, some years later, my brother Joe, a former state senator who now is chairman of the Democratic Party in Wisconsin.

That era is now, effectively, coming to an end.

Sen. Edward Kennedy will be treated for his brain cancer and will, with any luck, return to the Senate. But his diagnosis pretty much guarantees that the days of Kennedy giants who inspire awe, admiration and, to some extent, fear, are coming to an end. Bill Clinton's reign is over.

Unless something unexpected happens, Hillary Clinton will never become president. Brother Joe is unlikely to achieve elective office again.

We don't know yet whether there will ever be an Obama era. This year's election has interesting parallels to 1960.

Now, as then, record numbers of voters are turning out for primary elections. In 1960 the turnout was so high that several smaller communities, which used paper ballots at the time, ran out of ballots and had to use sample ballots to meet the need.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Gaylord Nelson and Sen. William Proxmire had won public office only two years earlier after the Democrats spent years in a seemingly perpetual minority.

In 1960, large numbers of Republican voters crossed party lines to vote for Kennedy. Observers guessed that many of them were Catholics who, in the primary at least, wanted to show a Catholic could compete.

This year, many Republicans voted in the Democratic primaries. For the most part, they seemed to vote for Obama in Wisconsin and for Clinton in Ohio and Texas.

Party stalwarts in Wisconsin in 1960 sniffed that Kennedy had too little experience to be president, though Madison realtor Patrick J. Lucey and Madison Mayor Ivan Nestingen supported the Massachusetts senator.

When Kennedy ran for president, it was conventional wisdom that Americans wouldn't vote for a Catholic. When Obama began his quest, it was conventional wisdom Americans wouldn't vote for a black.

Kennedy proved conventional wisdom wrong in the 1960 Wisconsin primary and Obama proved it wrong in the 2008 Wisconsin primary. He may not win the election, but he did prove white residents of a state like Wisconsin will vote for a black candidate.

So, are we on the cusp of a new political era? Surely, we are. But whether that era will be Obama's is yet to be seen.