Out of curiousity I ran a Facebook Groups search on the major candidates for the 2008 U.S. Primary Elections, and discovered the following...
The top four Groups for Hillary Clinton are actually anti-Hillary:
Stop Hillary Clinton: (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary), with 681,000 members;
ANTI Hillary Clinton for president '08 with 64,600;
Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich with 28,600; and
Life's a bitch, why vote for one? Anti-Hillary '08 with 13,600.
The first pro-Hillary Clinton Group is the fifth most populated, being Hillary Clinton for President - One Million STRONG with 12,425 members.
By contrast, the most populated Facebook groups for the other candidates are all for those candidates, but don't let their numbers fool you. Many people opposed to a candidate will join that candidate's group in order to challenge, debate with, and just generally piss off that candidate's supporters.
Barack Obama's group Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack) is the clear front runner with 418,797 members.
Ron Paul's group Congressman Ron Paul for President 2008 at number two with 62,885 members still has a clear lead over the rest of the pack.
Mike Huckabee's group Mike Huckabee for President 2008! has 28,237 members.
Mitt Romney's group Mitt Romney (One Million Strong for Mitt) has 19,954 members.
Hillary's group would be here, with its 12,500 members.
Fred Thompson's group Fred Thompson '08 has 6,179 members.
Dennis Kucinich's group Dennis Kucinich for President in 2008 is close behind with 6,007 members.
John Edwards' group Edwards 2008 has 5,771 members
Mike Gravel 2008 has 3,578 members.
John McCain for President has 2,660 members.
Bill Richardson's group makes the hard-to-believe claim America for Bill Richardson, considering it has just 2,477 members.
Duncan Hunter for President in 2008 has 943 members.
Despite the real man's popularity Rudy Guiliani for President in 2008 has a pathetic Facebook representation with just 872 members.
And bringing up the rear (because someone has to) is Alan Keyes For President In 2008! with 311 members.
What does this tell us? Not a lot, really. It's not a real poll. People join Facebook groups for various reasons, not always because they believe in the group, but because, as I said, they want to troll the boards and piss off the real members. And although we're well and truly embracing the Internet age where someone like my Mum could marry a guy she met online, there's a large percentage of the population who are willing & able voters, but who will only show their support at the Polls, nowhere else. Not to a Telephone Pollster, or a Petitioner outside a market, and certainly not online.
Still, looking at Barack Obama's and Ron Paul's Facebook numbers, I would expect both of them to gather a lot of real support (not just online) as more people have their say in the coming months and upcoming Primaries.
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1 comment:
The 08 election is the most depressing situation I have ever seen. Warmongers vs senile old men vs religious conservatists vs women vs minorities vs revolutionaries vs....... Well.. You get the idea. The 04 election was the election that divided the country, the 08 election will be the election that decides what minority group comprises the majority.
Personally, I don't put any stock in polls for many of the reasons you pointed out in your post. What I will say is that of the 50 states, only a handful actually matter because the majority of state electoral votes are money in the bank long before the election ever takes place. Kansas going to a democrat would be the political equivalent of a hurricane in alaska.
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