Based on numbers from ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, Telemundo, and Univision, Neilsen says a half million more people viewed John McCain’s acceptance speech last night than viewed Barack Obama’s a week earlier (38.9 million to 38.4 million).
My thoughts:
1. Those channels are probably the ones conservatives prefer; PBS, C-SPAN, and YouTube, whose audiences weren’t counted, probably catch more liberal viewers (who often seek talking head-free zones). I’d love to know the total viewership, which is probably impossible to track.
2. The more people who saw both McCain’s and Obama’s speeches, the better for Obama.
3. Interestingly, more women watched Obama than Palin (19.9 million to 19.5 million — caveat again, on those channels).
Your thoughts?
Obama clearly has the edge in presentation. Regardless, it seems more people wanted to hear what McCain had to say. Is that really a good thing for Obama?
Don’t forget the direct feeds from the conventions on satellite. They weren’t counted either, but had the best coverage, because it was uninterrupted from gavel-to-gavel. Just points out how irrelevant the “Big 4″ networks are.
My guess is that many Democrats watched Palin and McCain and then responded by donating $10 million to Obama, while a substantial Republican faction was afraid to watch Obama for fear that they or their spouses or their children might be brainwashed by his elitist words. They relied on Limbaugh and Fox News and Focus on the Family and the American Family Association to confirm that the Democratic Party is conspiring against their beliefs and their way of life.
I was a Democrat who watched Palin (and close to all of Wednesday and Thursday, both), to the extent that provides anecdotal evidence for Researcher’s theory.
Me. too. NMC. But I watched on C-span, then channel- surfed talking heads.
I won’t waste a moment of my time watching anything connected to the GOP, but I’d guess a great number of viewers had been watching the Washington Redskins vs. NY Giants NFL season opener on NBC. As soon as the game was over, NBC cut to the convention. I cut to a book.
This is anecdotal, but most democrats I’ve discussed the conventions with watched both, while most republicans I’ve discussed the conventions with did not watch the democratic convention.
I’m an independent who was last registered to vote Republican. I watched McCain’s but not Palin. Her voice makes me want to throw up. I did not watch O’bama.
I think I wouldn’t have watched McCain but wanted to give him a fair shake. I switched over to John Stewart shortly after McCain was finished. His analysis that McCain must have thought the guys from the Men In Black Movie came and waived their device which made you forget the last 8 years was right on.
I really wanted to see McCain do well because I used to like him. His torture stance, adoption of Rovian tactics and the catering to the evangelical republican base has made the O’bama vote easy for me easy. Plus O’bama is just plain smooth. We need a diplomat for a change.
Bet you’re in numerous company there, Evell.
I have trouble listening to Palin too, both her sound and her sense (the sound problem equally her accent and timbre, the sense problem her nastiness).
One other note: Obama doesn’t have an Irish apostrophe.
maybe.. we’ll see.
Count me as another Democrat who watched both. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Researcher is correct about a large percentage of Republicans eschewing the Democratic convention.
One of my republican friends troubled herself to text me during the Democratic Convention. She was watching it, and her message was “the Democrats look Great!” We once could not mention politics to each other out of love for our friendship. She is sick of how the Republicans have behaved these past 8 years, and like Evell, thinks Obama is the diplomat we need.
That’s great, ducky. Your friend reminds me of one of my earliest childhood buddies, whom we lost to cancer a few weeks ago. She was a lifelong Republican (daughter of a state party chairman, in fact), but she wanted to live to (among other things) vote for Obama.
We’ll just have to hope there’re more like Janet, your friend, and our friend Evell than there are neocons and theocons voting against us.
I believe there will be.