Polls: 76 % say U.S. ready for black president

According to a poll reported by CNN, 76 percent of Americans believe the country is ready to elect a black president, up 14 percent since December 2006. The tally also indicates that more whites than blacks think the country is ready to follow an African-American. "Of the white Americans surveyed, 78 percent said the country is ready, as opposed to 69 percent of African-Americans polled."

The polltakers did not ask how many respondents think there already has been a black president, but given the pervasive influence of television and the movies, it would be no surprise if many Americans think they've already lived through the administrations of two great black presidents, Tom Beck and David Palmer.

Played respectively by masterful Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact and charismatic Dennis Haysbert on 24, black chief executives have displayed magnitudes of courage, intelligence, idealism, resilience and competence far in excess of what's been offered by anyone seen puttering around the Oval Office lately.

What sensible voter wouldn't favor more of a good thing?