Obama may well be the beneficiary of affirmative action.
The idea behind affirmative action is to give those who would not otherwise have gotten a chance because of the known racial bias of white controlled institutions...a chance.
Just a chance.
What they make of that chance is then their own doing.
In the case of Obama becoming POTUS...you could say that was the byproduct of a different type of affirmative action.
The affirmation by the electorate that the republicans were no longer to be trusted.
So thank Bush, Cheney, McCain and the rest of the goons for affirming Obama right into office...
Oh, and GW was also the beneficiary of affirmative action, you know, the affirming that he would get away with drunk driving, be given an easy way to avoid Vietnam, be able to screw up in the private sector, etc., etc., etc.