Wisconsin In Middle Of Pack When It Comes To Racially-Charged Internet Searches

We're where we often are in State-by-State comparisons - - 26th among the states and District of Columbia in a study (p. 24, pdf format) out today looking at racist Internet searches and whether they could be a predictor of turnout when Barack Obama is on a national ballot.

The author finds that such searches do not bode well for Obama in 2012:

The results imply that, relative to the most racially tolerant areas in the United States, prejudice cost Obama between 3.1 percentage points and 5.0 percentage points of the national popular vote. This implies racial animus gave Obama’s opponent roughly the equivalent of a home-state advantage country-wide. The cost of racial prejudice was not decisive in the 2008 election.

But a four percentage point loss by the winning candidate would have changed the popular vote winner in the majority of post-war presidential elections.

Other tidbits in the study:

Among the states the study said were more prone to racial animus in searches than Wisconsin:

West Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, New York, Illinois and Indiana

Among the states the study said were less prone to racial animus in searches than Wisconsin:

Texas, Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, Minnesota, Idaho, Colorado and Utah

Interesting that Wisconsin does better than Democratic strongholds and the other Great Lakes states.