Twitter doesn't much like President Obama. But then, it likes Mitt Romney even less. Or at least, that's what the numbers appear to indicate on the new "Twitter Political Index" (or "Twindex" for short). Twitter launched the index today, claiming that it provides an accurate snapshot of the aggregate political sentiment of all 400 million tweets sent every day, USA Today reports. Its development partner, Topsy Labs, claims the software can even detect things like sarcasm and humor as it pours over the "firehose" of tweets.
It's unclear how accurate that claim is, but "anybody who's really interested in understanding political dynamics is going to be interested," says one Democratic pollster who helped with the project. The index ranks politicians on a scale of zero to 100, with 50 as neutral. Both candidates have languished almost entirely below 50—Obama was at 34 today and Romney at 25—and so far Twitter hasn't shown an obvious bias for either candidate. "We were surprised," says one Republican pollster. "It's not a super Democratic skew." (More Twitter stories.)
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