"Would You Vote For a (fill in the blank) for President?"

Somewhat interesting chart at Political Arithmetik comparing responses to poll questions over the years regarding our willingness to vote for a Baptist, Catholic, Jew, Mormon, Woman, Black, Atheist, or Homosexual for President.

I say only somewhat interesting because abstract questions of this nature melt away in the face of an actual candidate seeking your vote. Even when polled on a specific person, perceptions can change dramatically based on time and events. My favorite example of this were the polls on Ronald Reagan's age. In the mid-70s, polls showed significant numbers of people thought he was too old to be President. By the 1980 campaign, when he was the (even-older) GOP frontrunner, those numbers declined, and they had declined even further by his 1984 re-election campaign, which he won in a landslide at the age of 73.

But never mind the above categories. There are really only two kinds of candidates: those who believe their candidacy and agenda are circumscribed by static poll results, and those who seek to change those polls through their rhetoric and bold action.