The Internet has greatly increased the velocity of politics. Years ago, it would take days or weeks for a news story to have an effect on fundraising and other forms of campaign activity. Now, reactions are swift. The Daily reports:
President Obama scored a big victory when the Supreme Court upheld his health care law, but Mitt Romney may be the real winner online.
The Romney campaign said yesterday it raised $4.6 million on the Internet from more than 47,000 donations in the first 24 hours after the Supreme Court decision.
The Republican’s campaign also calculated that it signed up three times more members on its Facebook page than Obama’s page did, with 30,000 more instances of Facebook engagement (likes, comments, and shares).
Romney campaign digital director Zac Moffatt said that between the health care decision and the Hilary Rosen flap back in April — when the Romney campaign raked in cash after the Democratic strategist disparaged Ann Romney for being a stay-at-home mom — it has proven it can hold its own against Team Obama.
“I think we have always believed that the Obama campaign is not this insurmountable force you can’t take on,” Moffatt told The Daily yesterday. “I think they are much better at digital PR than they are [at] actual digital.”
He said yesterday’s numbers represented an online “breakthrough” for the Romney campaign.The Daily Beast reports:
Voters are reacting in broadly negative ways to the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the legislation known as Obamacare, a new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll finds, with a majority disapproving of the ruling, fearing health-care costs and taxes will rise, and preferring Mitt Romney to President Obama on the issue.
At the same time, voters scored the ruling a short-term political win for the president by a huge margin.
Overall, 50 percent of those polled said they disapprove of the court’s 5–4 decision, while 45 percent said they support it. Consistently, a majority of voters said that they oppose the individual mandate (53 percent); believe taxes will increase (52 percent); believe their personal health-care costs will increase (56 percent); and disapprove of Obama’s handling of health care in general (58 percent). Only 24 percent of those polled said that they believe the ruling will make the country better off.
