Presidential hopeful Herman Cain is leading the race for the Republican nomination—and, it would appear, Twitter as well.
In just the last two weeks, Godfather Pizza CEO has collected some 34,000 new followers on Twitter and has been mentioned more times than any GOP hopeful—even more than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Romney and Perry have been the front runners for most of this race and have dominated the news recently over comments made regarding Romney’s Mormon beliefs.
A recent MSNBC poll shows Cain leading the race with 27 percent of Republican voters, and Romney in second with 23 percent. But in terms of Twitter mentions, the two candidates are much more far apart.
In the last two weeks, Cain has been mentioned more than 126,000 times and Romney only 59,000, according to statistics from Topsy, a social media search engine. Perry, on the other hand, has collected more than 119,000 mentions in the last two weeks.
Many of the tweets mentioning the presidential hopeful are filled with links to news articles, full of jokes, and lacking any constructive criticism.
“Say what you will about Herman Cain, he’s one of the only Republican candidates who can count all the way to 9,” tweeted comedian Andy Borowitz.
“Herman Cain sucks America. Barack Obama is the best choice for this country, #Obama2012,” tweeted @theatomicdog.
“A great look at Herman Cain at Godfather’s. Did he save the Pizza or watch? Colleagues disagree in Omaha World-Herald,” tweeted New York Times correspondent Jeff Zeleny.
Cain, who has hovered near the bottom of the race, is famous for his “9-9-9” plan for economic growth, which would set the business tax, national sales tax, and individual tax at nine percent.
While most of the tweets have lacked political insight, the old adage holds true: Any press is good press. And while Cain’s position atop the GOP tower might be short lived, it’s clear that he’s captured people’s attention. Especially on Twitter.
Photo by Gage Skidmore
