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@ 2012/06/11As the US presidential campaign heats up, avoiding the never ending stream of sensationalist reporting is slowly becoming next to impossible. Pundits seem to be digging ever deeper, even bringing up Mitt Romney's prep school exploits and Barack Obama's rather interesting history with dogs in Kenya.
Thanks to ever shorter news cycles, most issues brought up in the campaign go unnoticed, or they are forgotten in a matter of days. However, since we don't usually deal with politics, we will take a somewhat different approach. Surely, there must be a way of looking past the 24-hour news cycle and checking what is really on the public's mind.
Google's autocomplete feature seems to offer the answer. It does not have a reality TV attention span, it meticulously collects search histories and unlike most media outlets it is unbiased, yet pretty amusing. So what does Google think of Willard and Hussein?
Simply typing Mitt Romney in the search box comes up with a couple of interesting searches. Ranked first and second are Romney's bio and wiki. The dog-on-roof incident ranks third and fifth. In case you don't know what we are on about, well, Google it. Romney's views rank fourth, Romney news came in sixth, while the seventh suggestion reads "Mitt Romney Mormon." The last three are about his family and platform.
The top Obama suggestion is Twitter, the second is "Barack Obama call me maybe," while his bio and wiki rank third and fourth. Interestingly, Obama's "net worth" came in fifth and Birthers made sure that his birth certificate ranked sixth. The rest aren't worth mentioning.
However, once you type "Barack Obama is" things tend to get a bit more interesting. Here's the list.
Barack Obama "is": An idiot, a Muslim, gay, the Antichrist, your new bicycle (?!), what number president, Osama bin Laden, a good president, a socialist, the devil.
If you thought Romney would fare any better, think again. This is his suggestion list.
Mitt Romney is: an idiot, Mexican, a tool, a Mormon, a douchebag, a liar, the Antichrist, evil, a serial killer, stupid.
Still, thing could be worse. At least Rick Santorum dropped out of the race.
Thanks to ever shorter news cycles, most issues brought up in the campaign go unnoticed, or they are forgotten in a matter of days. However, since we don't usually deal with politics, we will take a somewhat different approach. Surely, there must be a way of looking past the 24-hour news cycle and checking what is really on the public's mind.
Google's autocomplete feature seems to offer the answer. It does not have a reality TV attention span, it meticulously collects search histories and unlike most media outlets it is unbiased, yet pretty amusing. So what does Google think of Willard and Hussein?
Simply typing Mitt Romney in the search box comes up with a couple of interesting searches. Ranked first and second are Romney's bio and wiki. The dog-on-roof incident ranks third and fifth. In case you don't know what we are on about, well, Google it. Romney's views rank fourth, Romney news came in sixth, while the seventh suggestion reads "Mitt Romney Mormon." The last three are about his family and platform.
The top Obama suggestion is Twitter, the second is "Barack Obama call me maybe," while his bio and wiki rank third and fourth. Interestingly, Obama's "net worth" came in fifth and Birthers made sure that his birth certificate ranked sixth. The rest aren't worth mentioning.
However, once you type "Barack Obama is" things tend to get a bit more interesting. Here's the list.
Barack Obama "is": An idiot, a Muslim, gay, the Antichrist, your new bicycle (?!), what number president, Osama bin Laden, a good president, a socialist, the devil.
If you thought Romney would fare any better, think again. This is his suggestion list.
Mitt Romney is: an idiot, Mexican, a tool, a Mormon, a douchebag, a liar, the Antichrist, evil, a serial killer, stupid.
Still, thing could be worse. At least Rick Santorum dropped out of the race.
