10.3 million tweets were sent during the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. That is 114,000 tweets per minute (tpm) and shows that Americans were paying attention. Here are the moments that generated the most discussion, from the Twitter Blog:
- 159,000 tpm – Jim Lehrer quips – “Let’s not”
- 153,000 tpm – Obama – “I had five seconds”
- 150,000 tpm – Discussion of Medicare
- 140,000 tpm – Romney spars with Lehrer over rules
- 138,000 tpm – Obama calls Romney plan – “never mind”
And, #6 was Romney mentioning Obamacare, #7 was the Big Bird incident.
This was the most tweeted about political event in history, and there are more three debates. The Vice Presidential debate is next Thursday, October 11, 2012.
For analysis on real-time debate conversation, visit:
- Matthew Ingram – The Twitter Spin Room
- Drew Olanoff – First Presidential Election Gave Politics a 4th Dimension