I started watching the debate at a bar in Oakland airport, as I waited for my flight to Las Vegas. Prior to the debate, it seemed many of the patrons expected a stunning gaffe out of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. “This is going to be a joke,” I heard one beer-drinking customer say to another.
Turns out, she performed just fine. In fact, she exceeded expectations, according to a CNN Poll. And, in Fox New’s focus group, Palin was called the winner.
The Wall Street Journal also gave Palin a good review, which is probably not surprising coming from the conservative paper.
“The Alaska Governor has faced two major campaign challenges — her
acceptance speech and last night’s debate — and each time she’s shown
herself worthy of the national stage. Mrs. Palin couldn’t match Mr. Biden’s fluency on Bosnia or Darfur last
night, but not too long ago neither could Barack Obama. The Republican
nominee more than held her own on foreign policy in general, and in our
view won on points at least on Iraq and Afghanistan… Mr. McCain can nonetheless thank Mrs. Palin for defending him with
energy and confidence, and thus disappointing those in the media who
wanted to see her fall.”
But if you want to get a very different sense of how she’s done, all you have to do is watch the steady stream of American political consciousness on Twitter’s Election 2008 site.
The Tweets are an outpouring of opinions. Every second, there are at least two Tweets that appear.
For the last three hours, I’ve been watching the Twitter Election 2008.
And,
the steady stream – like a stock ticker running across my screen –
maintained its beat. Second by second, someone around the world had
something to say about the debate. As I stared at the updates, it was
as though I could read the minds of the strangers I saw at the bar,
watching the debate with me.
Last week, Twitter said activity surged due to the presidential debates. Updates jumped nearly 19% Friday to Friday. Signups during the debate were up 135% compared to the same time the week prior.
No doubt, Twitter will see some significant lift from this event. I can’t wait to see the new numbers.
