Obama and McCain Winning Wikipedia Primary
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James Joyner | Thursday, March 6, 2008 |
Josh Levy asks, “Who’s winning the Wikipedia primary?”
According to this cool site showing Wikipedia traffic, Barack Obama’s entry is the seventh most-viewed article on Wikipedia — and the most viewed among articles about actual people (he falls behind Valentine’s Day, three special Wikipedia pages, and the entry for Wiki), with 1,934,492 views in February. John McCain’s entry is in ninth place, with 1,151,929 views in February. Hillary Clinton’s page is far, far below those two, around 75th place with only 422,124 views last month (there are other Clinton-related pages even further down the list).
My guess is that this is a function of Clinton being relatively better known than the other candidates (she’s been on the A-list since her husband was elected president 16 years ago), Obama’s appeal to the young folks most likely to use Wikipedia, and McCain being the Republican nominee-in-waiting. Still, it’s somewhat amusing.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Yeah I think your conclusion probably accounts for most of it. Obama's less well known, people are less likely to have fixed perceptions of him, and the demographics of his supporters, as opposed to Hillary's, will tend to use wikipedia more.
His campaign is hopefully monitoring wikipedia carefully to corret any cyber-vandalism.
You would think the Obamessiah entry would show what a hypocrite he is talking about helping the poor while he himself lives in a $2 million mansion (if he lived in a more modest house I wonder how many people he himself could help to shelter?) purchased with help from a crook on trial now for corruption. How he personally earned over $2 million from his book sales telling people about the value of "hope" yet living lavishly on those earnings. How his wife earns over $300,000 a year as a hospital administrator, becoming instead part of the problem of affordable health care instead of a solution that he testifies to be. How he professes to love his country yet is married to a woman who has publicly stated again and again her contempt for it.
Guess liberals don't want the ugly truth to be known.
James, both you and Levy missed the big story. Why didn't Ron Paul win? His annoying followers have made him the king of online Presidential candidates. This was an instance where the Paulbots didn't win for their guy.
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