For all intents & purposes he was running against two other Democrats (Hillary & Dem lite McCain)... Turn out would have been huge ... He is a smooth talker ... (although he is like Chance the gardener in "Being There")... and there probably would have been enough RINO's crossing over to do the job.
Now, Obama is history. And the irony is that he did it himself.
But ... as with any Democrat ... it is everyone else's fault but his.
Bararack Hussein Obama, and his mentor the infamous J.Wright, may well go down as the guys who set race relations back for generations to come.
I suspect you may be right about this. They are exposing the great divide. And, this will drive us farther apart, not closer together.