I didn't pick Obama cause he was black, I picked him cause he was a fresh and energizing face. There's nothing to show Obama beat Hillary simply cause he was black. Maybe some people didn't want to have (at least) 24 years of a Bush-Clinton dynasty.
Obama was picked because he was a new face and that included being black, being black in itself didn't only elect him. However skin tone did make a different he had the Doug Wilder effect, whereas Roland Burris and Jesse L Jackson Jr, themselves who were vying for upward mobility Roland for Gov in 1999 and Jesse Jackson Jr for Prez someday did have something to do with it.