Obama, U.S. Election Day set Twitter records
Newly re-elected President Barack Obama didn't just make history by becoming the second Democrat since WWII to win a second term in the White House: he set a new record for Twitter.
Since posting it last night, this tweet from the @BarackObama Twitter account and photo of the Obamas hugging has been re-tweeted over 664,000 times:
Four more years. twitter.com/BarackObama/st…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012
While presumably written by a campaign aide and not Obama himself (he signs all tweets written by him "-bo"), the tweet nonetheless went viral and surpassed the record for the most re-tweeted message of all time.
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According to CBC, the previous record was held by Justin Bieber for his tweet following the death of a fan, which received approximately 223,000 re-tweets:
RIP Avalanna. i love you
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) September 26, 2012
Obama did send out one tweet himself that evening, shortly before the historic "four more years tweet" was sent:
We're all in this together. That's how we campaigned, and that's who we are. Thank you. -bo
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012
But it's an earlier message asking supporters to share their Obama support with their followers which now stands to become the second most re-tweeted message of all time:
RT if you're on #TeamObama tonight.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 7, 2012
It wasn't just Obama setting records on November 6, either. The U.S. election became the "most tweeted about event in U.S. political history" according to Rachael Horwitz in a Reuters story, with more than 23 million tweets going out between 6 p.m. and midnight that night. In the moments following the announcement of Obama's win, Twitter peaked at 327,000 tweets being sent out every minute.
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Of course, what would an event of this magnitude be without the usual Twitter drama? Disgruntled Republicans were quick to make their voices heard via the social network.
It didn't take long for Donald Trump to give his two cents and attempt to rally the troops for a march on Washington. And GOP chairman Jason Whitman didn't pull any punches, either, sharing his thoughts on who he believed was part of the reason the Republicans lost the election:
I just want to say a quick thank you to @toddakin for helping us lose the senate.
— Jason B. Whitman (@JasonBWhitman) November 7, 2012
Throw in some speculation about Diane Sawyer's sobriety and potentially illegal Instagram photos of voting ballots, and it looks like it was just your usual, record-setting 'Twitter Election.'
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