Certainly the big feature this Presidential cycle is one that has never played that much of a role before: social media. Last cycle during the debates, I typed like a mad man and kept update the ‘Grok in mostly real time, and then redid the posts to reflect a more chronological order.
Now, that’s just plain old hat, old school, and, well, just old. Twitter is what I use know to shove out on the spot thoughts and later on today, I’ll gather them up and stick em in a post.
Then there is Facebook – not really the medium for a fast and furious outpouring of every minute detail, but certainly lots of folks giving their overall impressions – and LIKEs.
Ben Hartford (and the Contoocook Valley Young Republicans), who I met at the NHYR Lobster Bake a month ago, decided to track those LIKEs – which candidate had so many LIKEs before the debate, tracked them at every round of questioning, and had a final tally of what folks on Facebook thought of the Republican Wannabes. The overall results are here:
| Percent | ||||
| Start | Added | End | Change | |
| Ron Paul | 503,352 | 507 | 503,859 | 0.10% |
| Rick Perry | 155,485 | 369 | 155,854 | 0.24% |
| Herman Cain | 174,201 | 299 | 174,500 | 0.17% |
| Mitt Romney | 1,106,101 | 279 | 1,106,380 | 0.03% |
| Newt Gingrich | 146,909 | 148 | 147,057 | 0.10% |
| Jon Huntsman | 17,193 | 77 | 17,270 | 0.45% |
| Michele Bachmann | 461,953 | 67 | 462,020 | 0.01% |
| Rick Santorum | 27,314 | 64 | 27,378 | 0.23% |
"Round" info after the jump (greatest gains and greatest loses / least gains spotlighted):
| Start | After 1st Round | Change | After 2nd Round | Change | |
| Ron Paul | 503,352 | 503,383 | 31 | 503,426 | 43 |
| Rick Perry | 155,485 | 155,532 | 47 | 155,565 | 33 |
| Herman Cain | 174,201 | 174,227 | 26 | 174,234 | 7 |
| Mitt Romney | 1,106,101 | 1,106,127 | 26 | 1,106,149 | 22 |
| Newt Gingrich | 146,909 | 146,924 | 15 | 146,940 | 16 |
| Jon Huntsman | 17,193 | 17,201 | 8 | 17,203 | 2 |
| Michele Bachmann | 461,953 | 461,951 | -2 | 461,950 | -1 |
| Rick Santorum | 27,314 | 27,317 | 3 | 27,323 | 6 |
| After 3rd | Change | After 4th | Change | After 5th | Change | |
| Ron Paul | 503,462 | 36 | 503,476 | 14 | 503,502 | 26 |
| Rick Perry | 155,628 | 63 | 155,638 | 10 | 155,679 | 41 |
| Herman Cain | 174,283 | 49 | 174,300 | 17 | 174,317 | 17 |
| Mitt Romney | 1,106,192 | 43 | 1,106,200 | 8 | 1,106,223 | 23 |
| Newt Gingrich | 146,958 | 18 | 146,964 | 6 | 146,968 | 4 |
| Jon Huntsman | 17,213 | 10 | 17,219 | 6 | 17,226 | 7 |
| Michele Bachmann | 461,953 | 3 | 461,957 | 4 | 461,960 | 3 |
| Rick Santorum | 27,318 | -5 | 27,319 | 1 | 27,327 | 8 |
| After 6th | Change | After 7th | Change | After 8th | Change | |
| Ron Paul | 503,516 | 14 | 503,526 | 10 | 503,556 | 30 |
| Rick Perry | 155,688 | 9 | 155,694 | 6 | 155,716 | 22 |
| Herman Cain | 174,333 | 16 | 174,335 | 2 | 174,345 | 10 |
| Mitt Romney | 1,106,229 | 6 | 1,106,235 | 6 | 1,106,253 | 18 |
| Newt Gingrich | 146,988 | 20 | 146,999 | 11 | 147,008 | 9 |
| Jon Huntsman | 17,233 | 7 | 17,233 | 0 | 17,237 | 4 |
| Michele Bachmann | 461,960 | 0 | 461,959 | -1 | 461,963 | 4 |
| Rick Santorum | 27,330 | 3 | 27,330 | 0 | 27,331 | 1 |
| After 9th | Change | After 10th | Change | After 11th | Change | |
| Ron Paul | 503,608 | 52 | 503,664 | 56 | 503,790 | 126 |
| Rick Perry | 155,762 | 46 | 155,807 | 45 | 155,840 | 33 |
| Herman Cain | 174,398 | 53 | 174,427 | 29 | 174,474 | 47 |
| Mitt Romney | 1,106,292 | 39 | 1,106,330 | 38 | 1,106,368 | 38 |
| Newt Gingrich | 147,019 | 11 | 147,030 | 11 | 147,049 | 19 |
| Jon Huntsman | 17,245 | 8 | 17,251 | 6 | 17,263 | 12 |
| Michele Bachmann | 461,985 | 22 | 462,006 | 21 | 462,015 | 9 |
| Rick Santorum | 27,335 | 4 | 27,342 | 7 | 27,367 | 25 |