Does Barack Obama owe Dennis Haysbert a spot in his cabinet if he wins the election? Haysbert, who played the POTUS on 24, said his role prepared the country for a black president.

"As far as the public is concerned, it did open up their minds and their hearts a little bit to the notion that if the right man came along… that a black man could be president of the United States,” the actor tells TV Guide's Jan. 21 issue, “People on the street would ask me to run for office… when I went to promote [24]…"

"I think we both have a similar approach to who and what we believe the president is,” Haysbert said in another interview with the Los Angeles Times. “Barack doesn't get angry. He's pretty level. That's how I portrayed President Palmer: as a man with control over his emotions and great intelligence.”

Haysbert donated money to Barack Obama — for more than vanity's sake, I assume. Actually, maybe he's really onto something.