Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss how 2016 presidential hopefuls are perceived on social media, noting that an unlikely contender was the most well-regarded on Facebook.
Host George Stephanopoulos began the discussion by noting that most of social media buzz during the midterms focused on Hilary Clinton. “We had this partnership with Facebook, which kind of tries to track the sentiment that we call Senti-meter, over the course of the days over the course of the midterm elections… [Clinton] got 100,000 more mentions than Chris Christie, double Ted Cruz, Rand Paul [and] Jeb Bush far behind.”
But Ben Smith noted that there was a difference between the number of mentions and the sentiments behind those mentions. “We’re getting the first slices of this data and you see really unusual things. Like [Vice President] Joe Biden is the best regarded of any of these politicians on there.”
Yes, THE Joe Biden. “They favor different stuff,” he continued. “They favor spontaneity. They favor goofiness…” (RELATED: No One In Los Angeles Appears To Know Who Joe Biden Is)