Democrat activity on the web

The internet provides more evidence that Democrats are starting to surge at least in terms of online activity.

Using Alexa.com, we can compare activity on four important websites: barackobama.com, the site of Organizing for America;  Tea Party Patriots, the Tea Party website; gop.com, the official site of the Republican National Committee (RNC); and democrats.org the official site of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

 

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/barackobama.com#

The chart shows that barackobama.com has clearly been busier than the other sites over the last three months.

The Tea Party site held second place for most of this time but both that site and the RNC site have disappeared off the scale in late August.

Another measure of netroots activity can be found on Facebook.  Here are the number of fans for the official pages of the DNC, RNC, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

DNC -- 114,731 fans

RNC -- 176,728 fans

DSCC --  138,723 fans

NRSC -- 19,722 fans

DCCC -- 169,875 fans

NRCC -- 11,241 fans

So, with exception of the DNC Facebook page, the Democratic pages are more popular than their Republican counterparts.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a way to track activity on those pages. However, the DSCC and the DCCC pages are noticeably much more popular than the corresponding Republican pages on Facebook.

Just a brief spot check, but from the looks of it the Democrats look like they are beginning to push things online, which is a good sign.

Democrat's lack of enthusiasm or Republican feuding?

Two messages circulating in the media on the upcoming election are that the Democrats aren't fired up yet, and that Republicans are suffering from deep fissures. Both of these situations, it is believed, will have an impact in November, but which one will matter most?

Democrats traditionally do not get excited about mid-term elections, but there are some signs that things have been picking up lately.

Republicans suffered some internal defeats during the primaries when Tea Party candidates with wild agendas beat out candidates supported by the party's leadership.  The division in the GOP could spell trouble in certain races where the Tea Party appears hesitant to support candidates who not share their agenda.  For example, Meg Whitman has been under fire in the California's race because of her views on immigration and climate change.

Even among the GOP mainstream there may be some friction between those who support party chairman Michael Steele and those who are not happy with his performance and behavior.  This could be one of the reasons that the GOP has only about half the cash on hand as its Democratic counterpart.

Divisions among Democrats, however, seemed to have cooled down.  Many on the left do not like what they see in the Tea Party and apparently have been willing to calm things down as the election approaches.  Indeed, there even appears to be a fire brewing under the Democratic base.

With still more than two months to go though, we will have to wait and see how these trends play out as the polls draw closer.



President Obama is urging Congress to pass a jobs bill at the White House, MarketWatch reports Monday.