Sanders Gained The Most Twitter Followers During The GOP Debate, Which Is A Bad Sign For Republicans

[Attorney in Texas]

link to "Bernie Sanders Gained The Most Twitter Followers During The GOP Debate, Which Is A Bad Sign For Republican Candidates;" excerpt:

Twitter's Government and Elections team tracked which 2016 presidential candidates gained the most Twitter followers during the debate, which certainly doesn't account for all voter support, but does give us some idea of how young people particularly responded to the fifth GOP showdown. Surprisingly enough, the candidate who gained the most followers wasn't a Republican, but a Democrat. Bernie Sanders gaining more Twitter followers during the debate than anyone on stage in Las Vegas Tuesday night doesn't bode well for the GOP in the general election.

After Sanders, Donald Trump's following increased the most, trailed by Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, according to Twitter. Poor Hillary Clinton, left out of all the action. The fifth GOP debate was very chaotic, with a lot of yelling, bickering, and incoherent answers, and was actually pretty difficult to watch. So, it's quite telling that so many people followed Sanders on Twitter as it went down, making it seem like an event meant to promote the Republican party was actually driving voters away. Of course, some people still loyal to the GOP could have followed Sanders out of curiosity or in an effort to stay up-to-date on the election as a whole, but they sure chose a suspicious time to do so.
...When someone outperforms Trump on Twitter, you know it's serious.

If the GOP debates continue to be free-for-alls, the party's odds for taking the White House in 2016 will become slimmer as voters get tired of watching the numerous Republicans attack one another, battling for attention and camera time. Though TV ratings might be high due to all the drama, those watching are supporting Democrats online. Twitter has spoken, and it favors Sanders.

[global1]

1. That's Right Repugs....

Feel the Bern!!!!!

Go Bernie Go!!!!!

[tecelote]

2. This is why network polls are off.

Hillary = Landlines
Bernie = Internet

Bernie's going to win despite the Media backing Hillary.

[retrowire]

3. yep

after noticing last night that republicans live online polls and such match up with their pundit polls but ours don't, I'm more convinced than ever that the pundit polls are a lie.

[bvf]

4. Meh. As if anyone uses Twitter anymore.

[Proserpina]

5. It's not exactly a ringing endorsement of Hillary, either.

But we knew that for months already.

[Divernan]

6. Direct quote: "Poor Hillary Clinton, left out of all the action."

And this from the OP link bears repeating:

If the GOP debates continue to be free-for-alls, the party's odds for taking the White House in 2016 will become slimmer as voters get tired of watching the numerous Republicans attack one another, battling for attention and camera time. Though TV ratings might be high due to all the drama, those watching are supporting Democrats online. Twitter has spoken, and it favors Sanders.

[SmittynMo]

9. Title change?

Bad Sign For Republicans and Clinton.

[beam me up scottie]

7. But I read here that they didn't mention Bernie AT ALL during the debate!

I guess they didn't need to invoke his name in order to feel the Bern.

[mountain grammy]

10. I only managed an hour then moved on to reality (switched to SyFy)

but they never mentioned Bernie in that hour. I got the feeling, if they did, they would turn to dust on the stage like on the SyFy.

[beam me up scottie]

15. I prefer almost anything to watching the clown car go off the rails.

When I hear them speak I picture this in my mind:

[mountain grammy]

18. Yeah, like that!

When I close my eyes at night, I like to picture Scalia's face melting.. sweet dreams.

[thesquanderer]

11. They did not mention him. However...

as the article also says, "Sanders was live-tweeting his dissenting opinions throughout the event." From there, people's retweets could in turn generate new twitter followers for him. (At least as I understand Twitter, which isn't very much!)

[beam me up scottie]

16. He took their lemons and made lemonade!

[thesquanderer]

20. It seems HRC did the twitter thing last night as well

though apparently didn't get quite the same benefit that BS did.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251902138

[in_cog_ni_to]

14. If they didn't mention Bernie, it's because they're dying to run against HRH so

they can drop whatever scandal bomb they have as soon as she's the nominee.
THEY WANT TO RUN AGAINST HRH. Why? There's a reason and it's likely a sinister one.


PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[beam me up scottie]

17. Still trying to figure out how ginning up hatred for Hillary is supposed to be a good thing.

I figured they wouldn't mention Bernie because he's not an easy man to vilify.

Although our resident HC supporters sure do try.

[roguevalley]

21. I'm dreading bill and the pedo scandal in florida. :(

[nc4bo]

8. Rec'ing because this is very, very in-ter-esting! nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

12. The Internet has spoken and it favors Bernie.

Great post!

PEACE
LOVE
BERNIE

[thesquanderer]

13. I'm surprised Rand Paul didn't come out higher.

I thought it was easily his strongest debate performance, and that his was among the best of the night.

I was thinking that a Sanders-Paul debate would be really interesting to watch. Both are people who have a few unconventional views (for their party), both are people who actually seem to have real convictions about what they believe, and don't have a tendency to pander as, well, I think everyone else from both parties does. It would be a really substantive conversation.

Of course, the odds are against either one of them getting their party's nomination, much less both of them.

Also, while such a debate would be really interesting, it would also be a bit scarey, because in a November election between those two, I think it could easily go either way!

[Hepburn]

19. It says a lot, IMO, that the Repukes are dying to run against HRC...

...they know they can beat her. Bernie, no so much -- the appear to be afraid of him. IMO, they fear running against him because he is the real deal whereas the Repukes and HRC are cut from the same bolt of corporate cloth.

[Attorney in Texas]

22. Wall Street Republicans would rather have Clinton over Cruz.

[Hepburn]

23. I agree...

...Hillary is predictable whereas Cruz is a wild card.

JMHO