US Presidential debate set new tweet record

The US Presidential debate on Wednesday set a new record for the most tweeted political event in history, according to Twitter’s government and political team.

The social network also states that just after the debate began, its service was set abuzz with more than two-million tweets in a very short time, generating twice as many tweets as the 2008 presidential debates combined, and topping off at 10.3-million tweets in 90 minutes.

Tonight’s debate was the most tweeted about event in US political history, topping the numbers from the RNC and DNC.

— Twitter Government (@gov) October 4, 2012

According to stats this even surpassed President Obama’s record last month set during his Democratic National Convention speech. Presidential hopeful Romney garnered some of the more popular tweeting moments, after his “Big Bird” (from Sesame Street fame) comment, setting Twitter alight with 17 000 tweets-per-minute.

“I’m sorry, Jim, I’m gonna stop the subsidy to PBS… I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too,” Romney said during the debate. Currently, presidential hopeful Romney is in the lead on Twitter’s latest index, but only by a small margin.

Some state that it might not be long before tweets can predict how an election might turn out, with pundits already calling this year’s elections the “Twitter Elections”.

Twitter launched its “Political Index” in August to track sentiment around the presidential election for 2012, and is built in partnership with two respected polling firms: The Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research.