A chart released by Twitter Thursday morning revealed Wednesday night’s Presidential debate in Denver Colorado was the most Tweeted event in U.S. political history, generating 10.3 million tweets in 90 minutes, making it the latest on the ever-changing list of “most Tweeted” events in the company’s six year history.
And everyone, it seems, is really excited about it.
The new record is a leap from the last “most Tweeted” event in political history, when President Obama’s convention speech set a record of driving around 52,756 tweets per minute — more than any other political event in American history.
History, of course, began in March of 2006, when Twitter was invented. For the record, President Obama’s acceptance speech and inaugurations also set Twitter records. His inauguration was the first of any US president to be followed on Twitter, which at the time was called “the micro-blogging site whose potential for 'citizen journalism' and disseminating information at lightning speed has aroused huge excitement on the web.” President Obama is also the first American President to Tweet from the Oval Office.
According to Twitter, the biggest moments of the night were:
-Moderator Jim Lehrer quips “Let’s not” when Governor Romney requests a topic
-President Obama quips “I had 5 seconds” when Lehrer gives time limit
-The discussion about Medicare and vouchers
Of course Thursday’s debate broke records on the six-year-old, 500 million user platform. It is the biggest major U.S. political event since Twitter reached critical mass. Each concurrent debate will set its own precedent (although I’m not entirely sold on the Biden-Ryan showdown) and by November 7th we’ll be back here again.
Will election night acceptance/defeat speeches become the most Tweeted events in U.S. political history? Here’s a Palinism for old-time’s sake: “You betcha!”
