Month: September 2012

Media Outnumber Delegates, But Public Still Doesn’t Care About Politics

Buck Banks

Here we are, in an age when all news organizations have massive resource challenges, and yet, there are four times more media people at each convention than delegates. Resources are hardly the only issue. The larger point is that Americans as a whole (rather than Americans as a targeted demographic) care less and less about politics. … I’m not sure it’s possible to emphasize enough the point about how little people are interested in politics — that is, the people who are not paid to be interested in it, or the fringe who take their identity from it. Sometimes, I think the political system can’t comprehend this fact or conspires to hide it.

— Michael Wolff, writing in The Guardian.

Fewer Watched GOP Convention, But Most Remember Eastwood

Buck Banks

37%

Of those polled say they watched all or some of the Republican convention, down from 56% in 2008, according to a new Pew Research survey that finds the public paid far less attention to this year’s Republican convention than it did four years ago; but 20% of those who watched cited Clint Eastwood’s speech as the convention highlight, while just 17% named Mitt Romney’s speech. Meanwhile, a new Economist/YouGov Poll finds 93% of those who saw any part of the convention remembered Eastwood’s 12-minute address to an empty chair.

Fact Checkers Looking for Lies Come Up With Slim Pickins at Democratic Convention

Trish
MichelleO
What a woman looks like when she's not lying

The media wasted no time trying to make equivalency arguments about how just as much fiction was bandied by Democrats on the first night of their convention as by Republicans during theirs. Fact-checkers, however, could find little to rival Lyin’ Ryan or Refit Mitt. Here’s the most FactCheck.org could come up with.

— “The keynote speaker and others claimed the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, would raise taxes on the ‘middle class.’ He has promised he won’t. Democrats base their claim on a study that doesn’t necessarily lead to that conclusion.”

Romney has yet to reveal what he will do if elected, other than retaining the Bush tax cuts for those at the top of the income ladder. The Wall St. Journal described the findings in the study, conducted by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

[…]

Have Democrats Stolen Twitter?

Trish

Although it’s just the first night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, people have already posted more than 3 million Tweets, including #DNC2012 and related terms. In comparison, there were 4 million Tweets sent throughout the three days of last week’s Republican National Convention (#RNC2012).

The official Twitter blog, adding up the numbers from the start of the Democratic National Convention. The blog added, “Among tonight’s keynotes, First Lady Michelle Obama’s (@MichelleObama) primetime speech peaked at 28,003 Tweets per minute (TPM) at its conclusion — nearly double Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s (@MittRomney) 14,289 peak. One line in her speech this evening — ‘we’ve got so much more to do’ — saw 22,004 TPM.”