CNN had an "Audience Response" tracker that tracked whether the audience thought the comments being said were positive or negative. CNN also broke out Republican, Democrat and Independent lines on this tracker. It was fairly interesting to watch because of a few key points, which we get after the jump.
UPDATE:
MediaCurves did some polling, and it seems to bear out what the CNN tracker says: Dems and Indys agree; Repubs out in cold. Most importantly, the Indys in the MediaCurves poll give Obama the edge in every category.
So some interesting observations I noticed from the tracker (which was at least something to watch as the visuals on CNN were fairly dull):
- Democrat and Independent lines were very close to each other often, while the Republican line deviated from both.
- Republicans were more likely to highly rate McCain, while Democrats and Independents were generally lukewarm. In the same instance, Republicans rated Obama lower than either Dems or Indys.
- Obama was more likely to have all three lines agreeing.
- Obama's remarks generated a response that was (sometimes a lot) more positive than those of McCain's remarks.
So some of my admittedly quick analysis of these points.
- It is telling that Democrats and Independents are in agreement. I think that it underlines that Republicans, not just in Congress, but even in America are bullheaded ideologues who have been ruling in hegemony over the last 15 years. There is a perception that America is conservative because of the outspoken and intractable nature of Republicans. Additionally, the number of registered Republicans is shrinking in proportion to Independents and Democrats. I think a lot of moderate, non-ideologue Republicans are becoming disaffecting and are re-registering as Independents, and these Independents tend to stand with Democrats!
- This is a corollary of (1). Republicans are rooting for their fellow dogmatist. They, just like McCain and Bush, are "out of touch." I hope that some pundit rails about this on the Boob Toob.
- Obama is the people's candidate! He can consensus build, even with Republicans. He talks sense that everyone in America, and especially "the American Public" agrees with. When McCain went on a meandering tangent, you could watch the Republican line remain steady while the Independent and Democrat lines sank towards the Negative. However, Obama's remarks caused all the lines to shift together (though not always perfectly).
- The audience liked Obama more. He got the highest positive rating, and he achieved that consistently. I don't ever remember McCain getting more than a ~75% positive rating, but Obama pushed and broke the 90% positive line multiple times. These numbers are kinda estimate because the tracker was small and you couldn't tell exactly what the numbers were, but the trend was definite: Obama's remarks generated more positive response. Additionally, I don't remember a time when reaction to Obama was more negative than positive, but there were long stretches of time when both Democrats and Independents viewed McCain's remarks more negatively than positively.
Something interesting to talk about, and I hope another diarist hasn't posted something about this before I got a chance to weigh in.
Also, this is my first diary, so I'm hoping somebody reads it...
UPDATE:
MediaCurves did some polling, and it seems to bear out what the CNN tracker says: Dems and Indys agree; Repubs out in cold. Most importantly, the Indys in the MediaCurves poll give Obama the edge in every category.
Some important numbers:
Who Won?
Dems - Obama 93% to 7%
Reps - McCain 90% to 10%
Indys - Obama 61% to 39%
Who is the better candidate for government spending?
Dems - Obama 79% to 21%
Reps - McCain 83% to 17%
Indys - Obama 53% to 47%
Lesson of Iraq
Dems - Obama 82% to 18%
Reps - McCain 83% to 17%
Indys - Obama 60% to 40%
Honestly though, the MediaCurves' site is worth seeing everything.