Elections/Campaigns

On McCain’s Night, Divided Attention

Even on the night that he accepted the Republican nomination for President, John McCain shared the spotlight with the phenom of the Republican convention, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

A check of the five bellwethers of the Internet we are monitoring since the conventions began reveals almost as much Friday morning buzz about the No. 2 figure on the ticket as there was about the man atop it.  

Our Internet indicators reflected the same broad trend at both conventions. The standard bearers from both parties were often overshadowed by other key players. In the case of the Democrats, they were Hillary and Bill Clinton, whose level of enthusiasm for Barack Obama became a key issue. At the GOP gathering, it was Palin, the virtually unknown Alaska Governor, who has emerged as the lightning rod of the convention.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The lead headline on Friday morning’s Drudge Report—“Eight Week Battle”—looked beyond the Republican convention to the sprint toward Election Day. The liberal Huffington Post took a somewhat mocking view of McCain’s speech, in which he pledged to bring reform to Washington, with the headline, “Me Too: I Want Change...”

The item most emailed from Yahoo! News, for the second day in a row, was an Associated Press story fact-checking remarks made by convention speakers. Last night, it focused on the blurring of some facts by McCain and other Thursday night luminaries.

Then it was Palin’s turn again. The most-linked-to story by bloggers monitored on Technorati was a New York Times article headlined “Palin's Start in Alaska: Not Politics As Usual.” It reported that Palin introduced a “local lesson in wedge politics” in her bid for mayor of Wasilla. That marked the second day in a row that the most-linked-to story made the same point—Thursday it was a Time.com piece concluding that Palin brought a polarizing element to Wasilla politics.

And finally, Palin dominated the most viewed YouTube videos Friday. Excerpts of her Wednesday speech totaled more than 1.5 million views. The next highest video, at about 1.2 million, was the now famous MSNBC “hot mic” interview in which Republican analysts Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy were accidentally overheard disparaging the choice of Palin as VP.

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Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ

All PAlin, all the time

The morning after Sarah Palin delivered her prime time speech to America, the online universe was buzzing about the GOP vice presidential candidate’s performance.

Palin has been the hot topic in all of five sites we are monitoring as bellwethers of the Internet since the convention began. What is notable about Thursday morning’s sample is a pretty clear division between the two sites that are more heavily edited (The Drudge Report and Huffington Post) and those that reflect more user input (Technorati, Yahoo! News, and YouTube). The user group appeared to take a dimmer view of the Alaska Governor.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The most positive reaction to the speech came from the conservative Drudge Report, which conjured up Frank Sinatra with its “She Did It Her Way” headline. That linked to an AP story that began with the words “Sarah Palin delivered,” and called the speech “a star-turning performance.”

The liberal Huffington Post went with an ostensibly neutral headline, “Palin’s Playbook,” which linked to a transcript of the speech. (Parts of the text that included attacks against Obama were highlighted in boldface.)

The story users had most emailed to friends from Yahoo! News purported to fact check the GOP speeches on Wednesday. Headlined “Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention,” the AP story offered some examples of what it said were criticisms of Obama and plaudits for Palin that played fast and loose with the facts.

The most linked-to item on the blogs monitored by Technorati was a story on Time.com called “Mayor Palin: A Rough Record.” Among other things, the article stated that in her run for Mayor of Wasilla, some saw Palin as a “highly polarizing political figure” who injected “hot button social issues” into what had been a gentler brand of local politics.

On YouTube, the most viewed item (with more than 840,000 views) were clips of former Ronald Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan and ex-John McCain advisor Mike Murphy discussing Palin on MSNBC, unaware that their microphones were on. Their comments—clearly not intended for public consumption—included Murphy’s assessment that McCain had made a “cynical” VP selection and Noonan’s assertion that the GOP had opted for “political [expletive] about narrative.”

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout the Republican convention.

Read Buzz Detector Republicans Day 1
Read Buzz Detector Republicans Day 2

The Palin Pileup

After Day 2 of the GOP convention, there is plenty of buzz about the Republican ticket in the online universe. But virtually none of it is about the man on top.

On Wednesday morning, the five bellwethers of online media we are following were fixated for the second day in a row on John McCain’s surprising choice for VP—the largely unknown Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. And in most cases, the news wasn’t good.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The liberal blog, the Huffington Post led with the headline “Palin Wasn’t Interviewed Until Day Before VP Offer.” That was linked to a Washington Post story reporting that McCain’s chief vetter conducted Palin’s first “lengthy in-person background interview” the day before the Arizona Senator chose her.

More questions on the vetting front were raised by the most-linked-to story on blogs monitored by Technorati. The winner was another Washington Post piece reporting that although McCain has crusaded against federal earmarks, Palin secured almost $27 million in earmarks as mayor of Wasilla (pop. 6,700).

The story users had emailed most on Yahoo News! in turn speculated on the possibility that Palin would be forced off the ticket. “McCain More Likely to Drop Palin, Bookmakers Say,” was the headline atop a Bloomberg story reporting that bookies in England and Ireland say the odds on a Palin exit are dropping. In one such sporting house, the price plunged from 20-1 to 8-1.

The Drudge Report went with a meteorological headline but the same topic as others. “Hurricane Sarah Hits St. Paul” linked to an AP story about whether Palin’s Wednesday night convention speech would help allay “distracting questions about her family life and qualifications.”

And for the second day in a row, the most viewed YouTube video was the convention arrest of liberal radio host Amy Goodman (about 472,000 views). But a clip of CNN’s Campbell Brown interviewing McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds about Palin’s qualifications was next, with almost 400,000 views. The contentious interview features Brown asking Bounds to “explain to us why you think that Governor Palin is ready to be commander-in-chief.,” and chastising him for “not answering my question.” Later, the story broke that McCain had cancelled a sitdown with Larry King in retaliation for Brown’s interview.

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout the Republican convention.

The Palin Surprise

Hurricane Gustav may have curtailed the festivities for Republicans gathered in Minneapolis on Monday. But online there was a major first-day convention buzz, though it may have been unwelcome.

Intense focus centered on John McCain’s surprise VP pick of Sarah Palin—and some surprises that have subsequently surfaced, particularly raising questions about McCain’s vetting process.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The most emailed story on Yahoo! News was an AP story—“McCain vetter defends Palin review”—that came after news that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. The story said Palin had informed the campaign about the pregnancy and her husband’s old DUI arrest, but added that “Since McCain publicly disclosed his running mate on Friday, the notion of a shoddy, rushed review has been stoked repeatedly.”

The same theme was hammered home on the liberal Huffington Post blog. The top headline was “What Did He Know…And When Did He Know Know It,” a reference to the revelations about Palin’s family and questions about the vice-presidential search.

The most linked-to item on the blogs monitored by Technorati was a New York Times column by Maureen Dowd written before the pregnancy revelation. The piece—featuring Dowd’s typically sharp elbows—lampooned the Palin pick, describing her as “a zealot, but…a fun zealot. She has a beehive and sexy shoes…”

A number of widely viewed YouTube videos circulating on Tuesday also focused on Palin, including a few that made Dowd’s commentary seem mild. (One such offering features a McCain impersonator sounding desperate calling up gun-toting Palin impersonator who tells him to act like a man.) But the most widely viewed single convention-related video, with over 150,000 views, was of the arrest of liberal radio host Amy Goodman while covering demonstrations.

If the first day of the convention did not bring McCain the kind of coverage he might have wanted, the site of conservative news aggregator Matt Drudge offered one rationale. “Media Turn on McCain In Election Showdown” read the headline linking to a Bloomberg News story on the growing tensions between the GOP nominee and the press corps, a group he once half-joking referred to as his “base.”

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout the Republican convention.

It's Not All About Obama

On a morning in which newspaper headlines and cable commentators focused on Barack Obama’s speech, the online universe once again demonstrated independence in its agenda.

Despite the drama of Obama’s Thursday night speech in a packed football stadium, only two of our five online bellwethers featured Obama’s acceptance address as their top story Friday morning. And despite the mantra that information is instantaneous and fleeting in cyberspace, two of those top online stories were about events that occurred before the Obama speech.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

Seizing on a key phrase in Obama’s address, the Huffington Post headline was “The American Promise.” The liberal blog site then used iconic old media imagery—morning newspaper headlines—to capture reaction to the speech.

The story that Yahoo! News users had most emailed to friends, in turn, was an Associated Press transcript of the Democratic nominee’s speech. That marked the second time the most emailed item was a unfiltered account of a major address void of punditry and commentary, the other being a transcript of Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday speech.

The top Drudge Report headline during the convention has consistently pointed forward to the next big development rather than offering a post-mortem on the last. That was true on Friday, as well. Drudge took a stab at GOP vice-presidential prognostication with a headline “And the Mate Is…?” The answer was a mock campaign button with the images of John McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. (The news that McCain had selected Palin, a dark horse in the veepstakes, broke later that morning.)

In the blogosphere more generally, for the second day in a row, the most linked to item, according to Technorati, concerned a story that had less to do with the horse race and more with the nature of the political process. It was the ABC account of one of its news producers being arrested for trying to film Democratic senators and major donors coming out of a meeting.

And the most popular video on YouTube—which has tended to capture two-day-old events—was an unscientific referendum on the Wednesday speeches. Former President Bill Clinton and Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden both delivered major prime time addresses that night. On YouTube, excerpts of the Clinton speech attracted about 400,000 views, roughly double the amount for Biden.

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout both the Democratic and Republican gatherings.

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Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ

A Split decision

The Clinton team and the Obama team shared equal billing—perhaps for the last time—as the online universe reacted to the third night of the Democratic Convention.

For days, the mainstream media pushed the storyline that the convention might be something of a competition for attention between the Clintons and the party’s nominee. And to some extent, our five bellweather in the online world suggest that today.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The most emailed item on Yahoo! News dealt directly with that issue. It was a Politico story focused largely on the former President’s speech, headlined “Bill and Hillary, at last, leave the stage.”

For the second day in a row, the most viewed YouTube video was from an event two nights earlier. Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday prime time address attracted more than a quarter million views. (A testy on-air squabble over Iraq between MSNBC‘s Joe Scarborough and David Shuster was a close second.)

The Vice-presidential nominee generated the top headline on the Huffington Post, which chose a theme from a Joe Biden speech that featured one of the more vigorous attacks on the GOP: “Again And Again…John McCain Was Wrong. Barack Obama Was Right.”

Obama—who made a “surprise” convention appearance Wednesday—was the star of the Drudge Report, which again evinced a tendency to focus on drama and tension. Beneath the image of a very pensive looking nominee was the simple headline, “The Speech Of A Lifetime.”

Meanwhile, bloggers monitored by Technorati opted to go in a completely different direction. The most linked-to item was an ABC story about the arrest of one of its producers while trying to film Democratic senators and major donors leaving a private meeting. According to the story, the journalist was roughed up by “a cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant.”

That’s not exactly Chicago 1968 all over again. But hey, it’s something.

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout both the Democratic and Republican gatherings.

Read Buzz Detector Day 1

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Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ

How Did Hillary Do?

Several distinctly different responses to Hillary Clinton’s prime-time speech dominated the online universe after the second night of the Democratic National Convention.

To get a sense of the online buzz during the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

The most positive assessment came from the liberal blog, the Huffington Post, which portrayed Clinton’s unity address a smashing success. “Hillary Delivers…And Then Some …” declared the big headline, surrounded by sub-headlines like “Turning Point of Convention” and “Dems United.”

A different reaction was conveyed on Technorati’s most linked-to item, a video clip of a CNN interview with former Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who hammered home the main GOP talking point. “She never answered the big question,” he said. “The claim she made during the primaries was [Obama] wasn’t prepared to be president of the United States. She never said that [he was prepared.]”

The most emailed political story on Yahoo! News was one that did not include any partisan framing of the speech. It was a no-frills Associated Press transcript of the former First Lady’s remarks.

YouTube, the other online metric driven primarily by public preference, also offered an unmediated look at the convention—although it wasn’t about Clinton. Far and away, the most popular video on Wednesday was Michelle Obama’s Monday night speech. (One excerpt alone generated almost 340,000 views and almost 500 comments.)

For its part, the right-leaning Drudge Report chose to focus on possible discord in Denver. “CNN: Clinton To Skip Obama’s Big Speech,” blared the headline citing a report that the former President would not attend the nominee’s Thursday night address. For Democrats hoping for healing after Hillary’s speech, that suggested half the Clinton team was not quite ready to sing kumbaya.

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout both the Democratic and Republican gatherings.

Read Buzz Detector Day 1

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ

A Tale of Two Women

After Day 1 of the Democratic Convention, the online buzz was a tale of two women. One is Barack Obama’s staunchest ally. The other … well, we’ll have to wait till tonight.

To get a sense how the online universe is reacting to the conventions, PEJ is monitoring five online destinations each morning at 9 a.m. The sample includes the top political headline on the Drudge Report, top political headline on the Huffington Post, the political story most linked to by bloggers in the previous 48 hours, according to the blog aggregating site Technorati, the most emailed political story on Yahoo! News, and the most viewed political video on YouTube.

Two of the sites looked back to Monday night, with Michelle Obama’s speech as the clear focal point. The most emailed story on Yahoo! News was “Michelle Keeps Things Down to Earth,” a Politico story praising “an awfully good speech” by the potential First Lady. A two-part video of that speech was the most watched YouTube clip, with numerous positive reviews mixed in with partisan bickering in the comments section.

“Michelle hit one out of the park,” declared one post on YouTube. “It brought tears to my eyes,” wrote another.

If the more democratically operated metrics of You Tube and Yahoo’s most emailed were focused on Michelle Obama’s speech, the more edited sites of Drudge and Huffington Post were focused on the idea of a Democratic party divided into Obama and Clinton camps. Their top headlines both looked ahead to Tuesday night, focusing on the anticipation and anxiety that will greet perhaps the most important speech in Clinton’s career.

“Day 2: Hillary Time,” was the HuffPost headline above the photo of a smiling, happy warrior Hillary. Drudge went more theatrical with the headline “Fasten Your Seatbelts, It’s Going To Be A Bumpy Night.” The choice of Bette Davis’ famous line from “All About Eve” is rife with implications. At a bare minimum, it posits Clinton as the convention’s drama queen.

For their part, the bloggers monitored by Technorati opted for substance over style and policy over pageantry. The most linked to story on Tuesday morning was a lengthy and wonkish New York Times magazine piece examining Obama’s “economic ideology.”

PEJ will continue the Convention Buzz Detector throughout both the Democratic and Republican gatherings.

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ