We're Not All Talking About Palin

A few quick searches on Technorati confirms it: We're not all talking about Palin.

The Obama machine continues to dominate the web, with mentions of his name in 1.7 million blog posts. McCain has just over half that number. The surprise here is Palin: For every blog mentioning her there are 11 on Obama and 6 on McCain. Seems low considering how much of a spark she lit but not shocking since her looks, family issues, and rousing speech are about all we have to go on right now.

Joe Biden has the same tired label on the web as he does in the press, with less than 100,000 mentions across the blogosphere. That's 60% of his rival for VP and even less than -- wait for it -- Cheney?

Clinton is still up there with McCain and attracts 6x more mentions than Palin. That's Clinton on Sept 10th. Although in fairness the number does include all blog mentions of Bill and the other Clintons - like, say, Mary Frances, the retired New Zealand field hockey player.

Where does Britney rank in this star-studded chart? She beat both Palin and Biden. Shame.

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Comments

[JohnnyBoyyy]

That's because most of us have "different" names for McSame! And, we ALWAYS mention Mr. Obama by name.

Just a guess.

This is OUR Time - This is OUR Moment.

Obama/Biden '08/12!!!

[Ged2012]

LOL!

[MBryant]

Obama has had an emotional following and he turned away from it. Obama supporters flocked not so much because of his issues - Edwards, even Clinton had better defined and communicated issues. They came to him because of who he is and because he's well.... cool. Obama began to see that he couldn't recruit enough Obama kool-aid drinkers to win and he needed to project not the image of the passionate, eloquent messiah - but the relaxed, reassuring, ready leader.

Then along comes Palin and she brings emotion to the other side. Her supporters aren't into her issues - she hasn't even given interviews to define those. Followers see her glamorous gorgeous successful image and hear echoes of "Hockey Mom", "Lipstick", "Pitbull", "Reform". They are having an emotional response.

Some are fascinated even though they know she's bad for them. She is shiny and pretty and though they know she's all sugar, salt, caffeine and MSG it's an easy thing - easier than going to the grocery store and making harder choices and spending twenty minutes in the kitchen to get something they know is better. Obama's talking issues and problems and that's harder to swallow.

Should Obama get back into the vague hope business? If the Sarah Palin buzz is strong enough to last until November 5th all blogger/pundit/wonks will say he should have in hindsight. If her voters wind up in a caffeine/sugar crash curled up on the sofa on election day and not in the booth.. not.

[grendl]

We should be talking about Palin.

Because she clearly hit a nerve with both parties.

Average everyday Americans seem to be saying they want to see someone just like them for a change in Washington. And Barack Obama is not like many Americans. In fact he's rather exceptional, a brilliant man and great orator who superceded the bounds of race, finishing first in his class at Harvard/

He's a superstar. But Palin was the GOP's answer. As smart as he was, his quips paled in comparison to the Ice Queens. And she doesn't pull her punches, and doesn't pander to the left. She's unapologetic about her ambition to sculpt this nation in her likeness, and all those soccer moms, disappointed with Hillary's defeat are coming along for the ride.

We should be talking about Palin, and how to defang her. It doesn't seem like the minutiae she's being assailed for is working.