Ron Paul
One other thing that struck me at the Republican debate was the support for Ron Paul. His performance at the debate was typical, but his supporters definitely stood out. They were certainly the loudest in the debate hall (cheering and heckling from the back corner). More impressive was the Ron Paul fan presence outside the debate.
At the Democratic debate, supporters for most of the candidates were outside the debate hall with signs, chanting and stuff. There were more supporters for the big-name candidates, as you might expect, but everyone was represented.
At the Republican debate, this wasn't at all the case. There was a huge crowd of Ron Paul supporters outside the debate hall, and at some other locations, in addition to signs near the airport, etc. Not only was there a huge Ron Paul presence, but I didn't see ONE sign for any other candidate. Seven other candidates and not one sign outside.
The internet is much the same: while I was in Florida, I played around a bit with Google Trends. This graph shows the number of queries for some of the candidates.
Ron Paul is in light blue.
Red = Rudy
Green = Barack
Orange = Mitt
Purple = Hillary
(click the image to go to google trends)
The top section shows the number of search queries by candidate, the bottom shows the number of news articles about them. Note that Ron Paul is the most-searched-for but least discussed in the news. I'm not trying to make this sound like a conspiracy, but it's interesting.
We thought that it might be some sort of query spam, but upon closer inspection, several different geographies are showing the same story, which makes spam seem unlikely. Part of the query volume could have to do with more people wanting to learn more about Ron Paul, and isn't necessarily indicative of support (i.e. people are less likely to do a search for Rudy Guliani, since most people already know about him).
At the Democratic debate, supporters for most of the candidates were outside the debate hall with signs, chanting and stuff. There were more supporters for the big-name candidates, as you might expect, but everyone was represented.
At the Republican debate, this wasn't at all the case. There was a huge crowd of Ron Paul supporters outside the debate hall, and at some other locations, in addition to signs near the airport, etc. Not only was there a huge Ron Paul presence, but I didn't see ONE sign for any other candidate. Seven other candidates and not one sign outside.
The internet is much the same: while I was in Florida, I played around a bit with Google Trends. This graph shows the number of queries for some of the candidates.
Ron Paul is in light blue.
Red = Rudy
Green = Barack
Orange = Mitt
Purple = Hillary
(click the image to go to google trends)
The top section shows the number of search queries by candidate, the bottom shows the number of news articles about them. Note that Ron Paul is the most-searched-for but least discussed in the news. I'm not trying to make this sound like a conspiracy, but it's interesting.
We thought that it might be some sort of query spam, but upon closer inspection, several different geographies are showing the same story, which makes spam seem unlikely. Part of the query volume could have to do with more people wanting to learn more about Ron Paul, and isn't necessarily indicative of support (i.e. people are less likely to do a search for Rudy Guliani, since most people already know about him).