So, last night after the speech, Mrs F was ribbing me about the fact that I was going to stay up late reading everyone's take on a speech I had just watched. She also tried to get me to face the "fact" that nobody was watching except but voters who had made up their mind—in-the-tank Dems or ’wingers looking to get their hate on—and that it wouldn't make a difference.
Hopefully, this indicates she was quite wrong.
NEW YORK - Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was seen by more than 38 million people. Nielsen Media Research said more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the Academy Awards this year.
And that doesn't include PBS or CSPAN.
That's pretty fucking huge. Since I spend so much time immersed in politics, it's hard for me to pull back and relate to what the layman might think (or not think). From everything I read, the convention speech is when people start paying attention, and, if they are undecided, that speech and the debates are usually what can impact them.
She had me second-guessing that somewhat, but I still believed that speech could be a game-changer. And now, those ratings indicate it was seen by a LOT of people, not all of whom can be "decided."
When only 100 million people bother to vote, getting over 38 million of them to watch the speech where you define yourself and your vision is pretty damn good.
[h/t Cesca]
2 comments:
"Another criticism of the measuring system itself is that it fails the most important criteria of a sample: it is not random in the statistical sense of the word. Only a small fraction of the population is selected and only those that actually accept are used as the sample size."
Dude Nielsen ratings is not enough to convince me I'm wrong.
And was anybody watching this past season of Idol?!
Evidently the McCain campaign was if it nominated a beauty pageant contestant for a running mate.
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