According to a San Diego State professor, Barack Obama is improving test scores among black Americans — just by being Obama. The prof gave fake GREs to white and black Americans throughout the campaign and found that Obama helped the black test takers narrow the achievement gap. According to Voice of San Diego:

The results showed that whites scored better than their black counterparts on tests administered during periods when Obama’s achievements were the least visible. However, during the points in the campaign when Obamamania was at its peak, the performance gap was all but eliminated.

“Barack Obama has been widely heralded as a role model for Black-Americans because he inspires hope,” said Marx, an SDSU professor of psychology in a news release. “This research provides evidence that this election has had a concrete beneficial effect on Black-Americans on at least this one measurable area of academic performance.”

Yeah, and I’ve got ocean-front property in Arizona.

First, exactly what achievements are they talking about? Other than winning election to the U.S. Senate, Obama didn’t have any major accomplishments about which to brag during the campaign.

And second, according to the study, Obama makes whites dumber — the scores among whites dipped if they watched his convention speech. I guess during this new age of hope doing well on a test is a zero-sum-game.