Presidents Race race still began with an animation on the video board: the four cartoon presidents dashed through Washington, D.C., and headed towards RFK Stadium. Immediately after disappearing from the screen, the costumed live-action presidents emerged from the right field corner as 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall) men with large caricature foam heads. The presidents bolted out from right field and down the first base line, past the visitors' dugout, and to the finish line by home plate. Beginning in the 2007 season, the animated lead-in was replaced with a taped video of the caricature-headed presidents running from the White House, around various Washington landmarks,
African-American presidents of the United States in popular culture African-American presidents of the United States in popular culture Before and after the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States in 2008, the idea of a black president has been explored by various writers in novels (including science fiction), movies and television, as well as other media. Numerous actors have portrayed a black president. Such portrayals have occurred in comedies as well as serious works. As writers and directors cast blacks as president in several memorable portrayals, depictions of fictional black presidents may have accustomed Americans to accept a black man as president.