Palin speech nearly equals Obama’s — in ratings
The Republicans have been crying foul about how the media has been unfairly going after vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Right or wrong, all that media attention, plus the curiosity about who this little known Alaska governor is, fueled last night’s broadcast of her acceptance speech. The results were predictable. The Palin speech was a Nielsen ratings hit, drawing 37.2 million viewers. That’s nearly as many viewers as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama scored a week ago at his Denver stadium event.
As I said, the big number was hardly a surprise, especially if you are at all media savvy. On the net, the name Sarah Palin has become the top draw on every search engine. She’s presently a bigger celebrity — yes, sorry, but that’s the word that fits — than Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, Madonna or Barack Obama. She’s on the cover of every supermarket magazine this week, as well as the news magazines.
What’s really interesting now is to see if the top of the ticket, Senator John McCain, can draw as many viewers as his running mate or his opponent. Tonight marks the end of the Republican National Convention and after his speech, the official final sprint to the election. My bet is that while many people will tune in, McCain will have a hard time surpassing the 37 million threshold. He’s simply too well known and familiar. Both Palin and Obama benefitted from being perceived as new and fresh.
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