Comments on: The Obama Effect http://kerryhowley.com/2009/01/25/the-obama-effect/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:28:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: johnl http://kerryhowley.com/2009/01/25/the-obama-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-1361 johnl Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:45:43 +0000 http://kerryhowley.com/?p=198#comment-1361 Oh that's terrible. You are not allowed to draw a conclusion that something has changed based on a test statistic being insignificant. Here is what's happening. In <i>ital</i> is some rephrasing to make it clearer. """ In total, 472 Americans — 84 blacks and 388 whites — took the exam ... On the initial test last summer, whites on average correctly answered <i>significantly better than</i> blacks, Dr. Friedman said. But on the tests administered immediately after Mr. Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, >... black performance improved, rendering the white-black gap “statistically nonsignificant” . """ The study uses very few black test takers so gets a lot of error in the estimate of that mean. Note that no claim is made in the NYT that there was a significant improvement in scores for black test takers. Sheesh. Maybe the full article is good, but I doubt it. Oh that’s terrible. You are not allowed to draw a conclusion that something has changed based on a test statistic being insignificant. Here is what’s happening. In ital is some rephrasing to make it clearer.

“”"
In total, 472 Americans — 84 blacks and 388 whites — took the exam … On the initial test last summer, whites on average correctly answered significantly better than blacks, Dr. Friedman said. But on the tests administered immediately after Mr. Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, >… black performance improved, rendering the white-black gap “statistically nonsignificant” .
“”"

The study uses very few black test takers so gets a lot of error in the estimate of that mean. Note that no claim is made in the NYT that there was a significant improvement in scores for black test takers. Sheesh. Maybe the full article is good, but I doubt it.

]]> By: chaotician http://kerryhowley.com/2009/01/25/the-obama-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-1357 chaotician Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:46:25 +0000 http://kerryhowley.com/?p=198#comment-1357 I have a feeling this "study" is bullshit---there's nothing white America loves more than an excuse to assuage its guilt, and Obama provides an opportunity for them to do this on a mass scale. In this sense he's more dangerous than Bush every was; so what if the policies of "rendition" (extra-judicial torture) and "the war on terror" (imperialism) continue? "We" (the illusion of democracy) elected a Black man as President; we must be a progressive and enlightened society, very different than how we were a hundred years before! I have a feeling this “study” is bullshit—there’s nothing white America loves more than an excuse to assuage its guilt, and Obama provides an opportunity for them to do this on a mass scale.

In this sense he’s more dangerous than Bush every was; so what if the policies of “rendition” (extra-judicial torture) and “the war on terror” (imperialism) continue? “We” (the illusion of democracy) elected a Black man as President; we must be a progressive and enlightened society, very different than how we were a hundred years before!

]]> By: cerebus http://kerryhowley.com/2009/01/25/the-obama-effect/comment-page-1/#comment-1259 cerebus Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:54:42 +0000 http://kerryhowley.com/?p=198#comment-1259 Symbolism was always the best thing Obama had going for him from a libertarian standpoint (alongside the paucity of the opposition). But we underestimate how powerful it is. This and something I saw via Obsidian Wings http://hellobeautiful.blackplanet.com/your-man/his-presidents-black are my data points for the day. Symbolism was always the best thing Obama had going for him from a libertarian standpoint (alongside the paucity of the opposition). But we underestimate how powerful it is. This and something I saw via Obsidian Wings http://hellobeautiful.blackplanet.com/your-man/his-presidents-black are my data points for the day.

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