Sarah Palin is the first woman ever to run on the U.S. Republican party presidential ticket. If Americans elect John McCain on November 4, Mrs. Palin will be the first female Vice President of the United States.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, both BlogPulse and Google Trends show more – a lot more – discussion in the blogosphere about Palin than about either Obama or McCain (see charts after the jump).
But what are the underlying causes for all the Palin talk? Why the fuss?
Is it because blogs may actually be responsible for John McCain’s selection of Palin as his running mate?
Is it because Palin came seemingly out of nowhere to get picked ahead of several other contenders?
Or is it just because she’s a woman?
Oh, here’s a nice question: If another candidate were to stand right now in Sarah Palin’s place, exactly the same as her in all personal, family and political respects, but that candidate were a man, would he be receiving the same amount of attention as she is?
Here’s the BlogPulse chart for Palin vs. Obama vs. McCain:
And here’s the Google Trends chart for Palin vs. Obama vs. McCain vs. Joe Biden:
There is heated debate on both sides of the Palin coin. HuffPo says Palin has made her first potentially big mistake in these fevered post-convention days leading up to the Nov. 4 election. But the overall buzz from her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican Convention last week has been overwhelmingly positive in the mainstream media and blogosphere alike.
I haven’t made my mind up about Palin yet.
But I do think that the incredible amount of buzz surrounding her has changed and will continue to change the nature of these last few weeks leading up to the election.
And blogs are responsible for a huge percentage of online mentions of her name, so we may be witnessing the year when blogs finally decide or almost decide – or maybe at least have a critical role in deciding – the fate of the four main presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Are you blogging for or against Sarah Palin? Or are you undecided/neutral?
Why is Sarah Palin so popular all of a sudden? What effect will the blogosphere have on this year’s U.S. presidential election? Have it at in the comments. Keep those claws retracted, please.
P.S. This is almost certainly NOT Sarah Palin’s blog. (… At least not the Sarah Palin running for U.S. Vice President.)
