Obama

The Election Enthusiasm Gap in Campaign Video Viewing Stats

If you want evidence of media bias, consider how in 2008, everyone talked about the “enthusiasm gap” between the Obama and McCain campaigns. It appears that the tables but turned in 2012, and that’s exactly why the media won’t say a peep about this enthusiasm gap, because it hurts their candidate.

Here’s one anecdotal, but persuasive indicator – the difference in views between videos each of the campaigns put out today.

The Romney camp put out a great video slamming Obama on his ridiculous but illuminating statement that government deserves the credit for any entrepreneur building a business, not the business-owner:

It was released today, and as of this posting, it has 130,400 views. Watch it, it’s great!!

The Obama campaign, on the other hand, has given Michelle Obama a bigger role by having her roll out the “it takes one” campaign, with it’s own video release. It was also released today, and as of this posting, it has 3,060 views.

So for every view that Michelle got, the Romney ad got 42 views. That’s quite a gap.

Of course, you could make the argument that they are not comparable as the Romney video has a controversy in the news cycle propelling views, it’s not comparable to put a Mitt video up against a Michelle video, conservatives are evil, and evil spreads quicker than goodness, etc.

Now let’s magically timewarp back to 2008. CBS News ran a story with the headline, “Is There An ‘Enthusiasm Gap‘?” 

This enthusiasm gap can be seen in larger crowds at rallies, as well as in greater fundraising. Journalists – and voters – sense this kind of enthusiasm, too.

So greater fundraising is a sign of enthusiasm in 2008, but proof that old white men are buying the election in 2012. The media will rarely mention this gap unless it appears to turn in Obama’s favor, otherwise you’ll only hear about it in newsmedia from the right.