The US Presidential Race: Interest Online Vs. Interest In Iowa

The presidential race taking place on the ground today in the US in the lead up to the big day in November 2008 – more specifically, the start of the caucus season - is mostly focused one place and one place only: Iowa. Four years back, New Hampshire fought the Midwestern state for media coverage tooth and nail. Now? Not so much. It still gets traffic, but it’s not where the great majority of sound bytes are now being tossed to and fro on a 24-hour basis.

But such is not the case on the Web. On the Web, vocal netizens in most all 50 states have bullhorns of their own. Some are certainly louder than others, but for the most part, it’s fairly genuine democracy in action in the realm where blogs reign supreme. And, as opposed to 2004, the gritty, take-no-BS environs created by the Internet’s most socially-engaging websites really do appear to matter this time around.

A similarly refreshing item to consider is the polarity of interest charted for certain candidates on the Web as opposed to the estimates of interest gauged by traditional polls (those documented and published by ABC, USA Toda, etc.). For instance, one might imagine that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton would dominate online and on the ground all the same. However, Forbes.com reported yesterday morning that the latest zeitgeist of search terms derived from Google’s queries for the whole of 2007 revealed the Republican Ron Paul, a libertarian currently attracting a great deal of news coverage, surpassed all others in the race, edging out Senators Clinton and Obama, two of the most publicized candidates for the last several months. A look at a few statistics assembled by the research firm Compete and spotlighted recently by Morgan Webb of the Webb Alert also show Mr Paul with a thorough blanket of hits all across the land.

Which just goes to show what the Web allows for as far as the deliverance of balance and equity. Since it is eminently easy for citizens at large to coalesce online and mold the focus of issues of concern, rather than rely on the often subjective filtration of coverage by big media outlets, items – or, in this case, people – are more ideally open to direct analysis by the everyman and everywoman. Without a doubt, Google’s review of its engine’s usage for the past twelve months does surprise. And that’s good. Because the more information you’re presented as to the full scope of the facts, the less adulterated your perspective is on the day’s events. Making you a better decider.

That I think, in honor of Merriam-Webster’s decision this week, deserves a good w00t!, wouldn’t you agree?

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