Kel,
Your facts are a bit wrong. Obama was already kicking Ryan’s butt when Ryan’s sex scandal broke. But his rise is fast indeed and it is way too early to be thinking presidential. Maybe in '12 or '16.
But as to his appeal to Whites … the blatant racists are never gonna vote Democratic. Then there is the rest of us White folk. We are uncomfortable with a Sharpton or a Jackson. Even if we agreed with the message, they are “too Black” for our comfort. We want to vote blind to skin color, but still want to vote for someone who we percieve as “of us” rather than shouting out “other”. We want someone who we admire and who we feel shares ours cultural values and history. Someone who can inspire. Someone who can lead us where we didn’t know we wanted to go until they pointed it out to us and then of course that was where we wanted to be all along. Obama may be a person like that. He is not a “Black Leader” in the preacher tradition. He instead is the classic American success story. A child of humble beginnings, son of an immigrant, succeeding on the basis of superior intellect and hard work. Raised as he was he not only shares much in cultural values with mainstream White America but he can articulate these values in ways that we all understand and identify with.
As to his appeal to Blacks … well, my impression has always been that most Blacks have cultural values pretty dang similar to us White folks. Even if self appointed leadership doesn’t always articulte them so well. A man of mixed heritage who has embraced the fact that no matter what he will be called “Black” in this country, and succeeds in this society to the level of a Presidential bid? If he articulates positions they like, they’ll vote for him. Maybe even if they disagree with him on some. The strong place his church plays in his life will also play strong to Blacks in the South.
But this election has us having to question if any Northern Democrat can pull it off, even with a strong appeal to Southern Blacks. He is also unashamedly liberal. I think that this is a plus if he has the ability to get the Middle (that has swung hard to the Right in recent years) to see that this is where they really want to go. The pendulum has to swing back some eventually. A man who has a vision to articulate and does so well can take advantage of that moment of turning inertia.
Short version. Let’s see what he does in the Senate for a few years and then judge him.