When I was in St. Lucia just after Obozo was elected, we heard a few cab drivers debating whether or not Obama was “The Messiah”. They were quite serious about it. We wanted to hurl on the beach.
There is a cultural context for this.
Every Anglophone West Indian island (Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Virgin Islands, etc.) is deeply influenced by Marcus Garvey.
Marcus Garvey is considered a prophet, saint, hero and so forth.
His main teachings, such as they were, were that full equality and dignity would not come for the African diaspora until a great leader from Africa arose to deliver them. He implied, without saying it directly, that it would be a Second Coming.
Many Jamaicans saw Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia, as that leader. When Selassie died (likely murdered by Communists), many West Indians believed that another leader would come.
When a man whose father was Kenyan became the frontrunner for the presidency of the US, many West Indians believed that Garvey's prophecy was coming true.
Again, this belief was not based on the President's actions or voting record or personality or anything specific, but as a possible fulfillment of prophecy - a West Indian analogue of what we see many endtimers on these threads feverishly proclaiming with each new global development.