I wouldn't be so quick to write off Kweisi in a general, especially in a state like MD. Many of us were WAY off in our calculation that nominating a radical nut with a scary name (who couldn't even win the nomination for a House seat when he ran previously) would lose in a landslide for a Senate seat to a Republican, and now that nut is the junior Senator from Illinois.
Don't get me wrong, Jack Ryan definitely would have had to wage an uphill battle in that race.
Considering the fact that Carol Moseley-Braun was elected-albeit, by a very small margin-it might even be hard to make a plausible case that someone who is-relatively speaking-free of ethical blemishes, such as Barack Obama, could have been defeated.
However, if you look at the final presidential numbers, I believe that President Bush lost the state by ten points, I think that Jack Ryan could have definitely made a race of it.