Is the United States ready for its first black President? African American voters are skeptical.

It is still a long way to the White House for Democrat Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, but only 47 per cent of blacks said the country was prepared to elect a black person as President, according to the latest nationwide New York Times/CBS News poll.

However, 56 per cent of whites said they felt that way.

Also, a majority of whites and blacks, and men and women, considered the country ready for its first woman President.

The poll's findings are based on a national telephone survey conducted Jan. 9-12 with 1,061 registered voters; it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.