With the second presidential debate now well in the books, a stream of press emails are still coming in at a rate of about one every two minutes.
While we at Voted Up appreciate the efforts of the campaigns to spin the debates as they see fit, we'll stay away from the winner and loser discussion and instead focus on the digital trends we saw during the debate. No live GIF coverage this time, we're afraid, but there's plenty more to discuss.
Here are our six digital takeaways from the Hofstra debate:
A Behind the Scenes Look Via Twitter Much has been made about the role of social media in the election, but it doesn't get much better than the images tweeted prior to the debate by Mitt Romney's personal assistant, Garrett Jackson. Known on Twitter as Mitt's Body Man, Jackson tweeted photos of Romney's every step prior to taking the stage. His feed still displays images of the ride to Hofstra, Romney in the 'warmup' room backstage, Romney getting mic'd up, Romney hitting a "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose," sign and, finally, Romney taking the stage. It was a unique, real time look into what candidates go through before such major moment.
Meme of the Night: Binders Full of Women In response to a question about gender equality in the workplace, Romney spoke of an experience during his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts in which he sought to hire women for his administration. "I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks,'" he said, "and they brought us whole binders full of women."
While Romney was highlighting his effort to hire women while in office, he was also tossing a softball to the 'please, please give us something to work with,' masses of the internet-- and they hit it out of the park. Three different "Romney's Binder" Twitter accounts shortly surfaced, along with a Tumblr blog (at least one, as far as we know), and a binder themed caption site. The domain bindersfullofwomen.com was even registered, according to Politico,.
Campaigns Create a Native Debate Watching Experience Both the Obama and Romney campaigns wanted voters to have their campaign websites open while watching the debate. Prior to the debate, the Romney campaign sent an email from Romney's son, Tagg, asking supporters to "Join us online tonight." The email contained links to the campaign's debate page, and its rapid response Twitter and Tumblr accounts. The debate page itself featured a slider of talking-point-themed videos and curated Twitter commentary. The intention was to have the webpage open on desktop or mobile devices while the debate played on TV.
The Obama campaign, on the other hand, dedicated a significant amount of real estate on its debate page to an embedded live stream via YouTube. The campaign then conveniently tucked a 'donate' button into the bottom left-hand corner of the screen in order to capitalize on the added traffic.
Commission on Presidential Debates is Out of Touch Prior to the debate, Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., co-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, asked those in attendance to "Try not to Twitter for 90 minutes." While it is understandable that Fahrenkopf wanted to keep distractions to a minimum, it is embarrassing that he would first single out Twitter and then use the term 'To Twitter' instead of 'Tweet.' Plenty of media members took notice, and mocked Fahrenkopf for making the request. Blogger Garrett Quinn summed up the reaction nicely when he tweeted: "Why, exactly, do we need a formal commission to handle presidential debates?"
Obama Campaign Gets #RealRomney to Trend on Twitter A little over fifty minutes into the debate, the Obama campaign was able to get the hashtag #RealRomney to trend on Twitter right underneath the sponsored pro-Romney trend, #FightForJobs. The effort was clearly coordinated by the Obama campaign and was bolstered by tweets from celebrities such as Eva Longoria and Tyrese.
Instant Twitter Rebuttals > Email Messaging If you are on the Romney or Obama campaign press lists, you know that debate night is rough on the inbox. Perhaps sensing this, both campaigns used journalists' favorite tool, Twitter, to push their message as well.
The 'instant responses' were surely prepared beforehand. Almost as soon as Romney began talking about the auto bailout, Obama campaign press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted an unlisted YouTube clip of a prior Romney interview on the subject uploaded just the day before. At Voted Up, we think the tweets are a good tactic.
Follow Alex Kantrowitz on Twitter:
