FILE - This Aug. 30, 2009 file photo shows Big Bird, of the children's television show Sesame Street, in Los Angeles. Big Bird is endangered. Jim Lehrer lost control. And Mitt Romney crushed President Barack Obama. Those were the judgments rendered across Twitter and Facebook Wednesday during the first debate of the 2012 presidential contest. While millions turned on their televisions to watch the 90-minute showdown, a smaller but highly engaged subset took to social networks to discuss and score the debate as it unspooled in real time. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
Social media renders rapid judgment on debate
FILE - This Aug. 30, 2009 file photo shows Big Bird, of the children's television show Sesame Street, in Los Angeles. Big Bird is endangered. Jim Lehrer lost control. And Mitt Romney crushed President Barack Obama. Those were the judgments rendered across Twitter and Facebook Wednesday during the first debate of the 2012 presidential contest. While millions turned on their televisions to watch the 90-minute showdown, a smaller but highly engaged subset took to social networks to discuss and score the debate as it unspooled in real time. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
By BETH FOUHY
Associated Press /
October 7, 2012
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— Romney’s big win. Social media participants marveled at Romney’s strong outing and pronounced Obama’s debate performance flat, non-energetic and meandering — a dud. While Obama has been leading Romney in battleground state polls in recent days, the consensus on social networks was that Romney’s debate performance had breathed new life into his campaign.
Obama supporters were some of his toughest critics. Andrew Sullivan, a pro-Obama writer for The Daily Beast whose Twitter feed, Sullydish, has a loyal following, declared: ‘‘This was a disaster for the president.’’ Joe Mercurio, a New York media buyer, wrote on Facebook: ‘‘It could have been worse.’’
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