Free-For-All 2008: Democrats Take Over

The big news this month is that the pro-Democrat bias in reporting has reached a drastic high (again): 63% of all chatter was about the Democrats, during a month that spanned the Ames Straw Poll (a G.O.P. event) and not much else. That is to say, this month editors had more choice in what stories to run, and they chose to talk and talk and talk about Hillary and Obama... and Edwards and Richardson and Biden and Dodd, all of whom got far more coverage than their correspondingly irrelevant second-tier Republicans. Here's the Democrats' percentages this year:

2007	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug
Dems	61%	68%	59%	58%	57%	55%	59%	63%

The discrepancy does not arise from the number of candidates: a quick glance shows that the top three Democrats are all above the top Republican, and the disparity continues on down the line. Nor is it because of the inclusion of more "benchmark" Democrats like Al Gore; without Gore, Dean, Kerry, and Rice, the Democrats score 62% this month instead of 63%. Also: Tommy Thompson isn't really up, that's the news surge from him announcing his candidacy is over. That was painless. Also on the outs (but it's not even newsworthy), Jim Gilmore. I'll probably drop them from the rankings next month. The monthly prediction...

Jul '07: Giuliani & Fred Thompson over Clinton & Warner
Jul '07: Giuliani & Thompson over Clinton & Warner
Jun '07: Clinton & Warner over McCain & Romney
May '07: Clinton & Warner over McCain & Romney
Apr '07: Clinton & Warner over McCain & Giuliani
Mar '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Feb '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Jan '07: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Dec '06: Clinton & Obama over McCain & Giuliani
Nov '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Oct '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Sep '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Aug '06: McCain & Giuliani over Clinton & Warner
Jul '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Jun '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
May '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Apr '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Romney
Mar '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Rice
Feb '06: Clinton & Warner over Allen & Rice

Rank	Candidate	Chatter	Rank Change
R.1	Sen. John McCain	3,133	0
R.2	Rudy Giuliani	3,063	0
R.3	Gov. Mitt Romney	2,496	0
R.4	Fred Thompson	1,570	0
R.5	Ron Paul	674	+2
R.6	Secy. Condoleezza Rice	489	0
R.7	Gov. Mike Huckabee	398	+2
R.8	Sen. Sam Brownback	354	0
R.9	Tommy Thompson	316	+5
R.10	Rep. Tom Tancredo	243	+3
R.11	Rep. Duncan Hunter	214	-1
R.12	Newt Gingrich	256	-1
R.13	Sen. Chuck Hagel	181	-8
R.14	Jim Gilmore	46	-2
...............	...............................................	.......................	...............
D.1	Sen. Hillary Clinton	6,536	0
D.2	Sen. Barack Obama	5,402	0
D.3	Sen. John Edwards	3,712	0
D.4	Gov. Bill Richardson	1,537	+1
D.5	Sen. Joseph Biden	1,482	+2
D.6	Sen. Christopher Dodd	1,370	+2
D.7	Sen. John Kerry	1,069	-1
D.8	Al Gore	624	-4
D.9	Rep. Dennis Kucinich	540	0
D.10	Howard Dean	336	-1
D.11	Mike Gravel	237	+1
D.12	Gov. Mark Warner	145	+1
D.13	Sen. Russ Feingold	111	-2
D.14	Wesley Clark	87	0

Notes: The Chatter Rankings are created by searching each candidate's name plus "2008" in the Google News database. This month tested but not qualifying are John Cox (219) and Jeb Bush (72). Non-contenders are kept on the rolls as Vice-Presidential possibilities (e.g. Rice) and benchmarks (e.g. Dean).

See brand new graphs of the Chatter Rankings plus Chatter Rankings from July, June, May, April, March, February, January, December 2006, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, December 2005, August, July, June, and May.