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Obamacare: Obama vs Romney on Social Media

Abstract – Analyzing social media can sometimes produce interesting and even counter-intuitive results.

A case in point is the term “Obamacare”, now a short-hand term for healthcare reform in the US, and its

role in the presidential race in regard to healthcare. We found that both candidates had similar numbers

of hits in association with “Obamacare” during the week of October 1 to October 8 2012; furthermore,

“Romney” as a search term actually had more hits on Twitter in association with “Obamacare” than

“Obama” did. Other counterintuitive results were also found.

Introduction

The term “Obamacare” is now a short-hand term for healthcare reform in the US, and specifically the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It has actually become a significant term in the

presidential race in regard to healthcare. Indeed, someone who was not familiar with the race might be

forgiven for thinking that “Obamacare” was a central tenet of the Republican Party, as this term appears

nine times in the Republican platform, but does not appear at all in the Democratic platform.

However “Obamacare” is also a lightning rod for the controversies surrounding healthcare reform in the

US. There is general agreement among all political parties that the US healthcare system is broken and

needs to be reformed, but widespread disagreement about the best way to fix it. Thus, “Obamacare”

can be a positive term for some Americans, signaling desirable healthcare reform, while for other

Americans, it is highly negative, spelling disaster for American healthcare.

iMedSocial already described one interesting effect of communication on Twitter about Obamacare,

involving the candidate Mitt Romney (http://www.imedsocial.com/uncategorized/tweeting-romney-

and-obamacare-middle-class-is-out-mother-jones-is-in/). However, our analysis of the names “Obama”

and “Romney” with regard to “Obamacare” turned up a number of interesting points about how the

public communicates political sentiment about these issues on social media on social media about these

issues. Read on for more information!

Our Analysis

We looked at all Twitter results, or tweets, between October 1 to October 8, 2012, which contained one

of two word pair combinations: “Obama” and “Obamacare”; or “Romney” and “Obamacare”. The search

was adjusted so that the results had to contain both words of one of these two pairs, as opposed to only

containing Obamacare for example. These dates were chosen because we were looking for a possible

effect of the debate that occurred between the two presidential candidates on October 3 2012.

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With whom is the term more associated – Obama or Romney?

As we noted above, we adjusted the search parameters so that “Obama” would appear as a distinct

result from “Obamacare”. During this time period, “Obama” and “Obamacare” had 28,716 hits in total,

with a peak of 8,459 hits on October 4 2012. “Romney” and “Obamacare” had 25,771 hits in total, with a

peak of 8,950 hits on October 4 2012. Indeed, overall, the pattern of hits is almost identical for these the

two candidates in association with “Obamacare”, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – total number of hits, Obama vs Romney

We then asked where this conversation was occurring in social media. “Obama” had nearly 27% total

hits in microblogs such as Twitter but roughly equal amounts (around 20%) in traditional on-line news

media, message boards and social networks such as Facebook, as compared to “Romney” with nearly

30% total hits in microblogs such as Twitter, but similar amounts of hits in traditional on-line news

media and message boards, with a slightly lower amount of hits in social networks such as Facebook.

Thus, although President Obama has an excellent reputation on Twitter, with regard to Obamacare,

former Governor Romney appears more often in this communication channel.

For both men, unsurprisingly the various communication channels had peaks on the same days, so

microblogs and social networks peaked on October 3 2012, on the day of the debate, while traditional

on-line news media, message boards and blogs all peaked on October 4 2012, after the debate. By

October 6 2012, all communication channels had returned to pre-debate levels in terms of the on-line

communication about “Obama”/”Romney” and “Obamacare”.

In terms of the geographical locations of the individuals communicating on social media, we found that

for President Obama, the top 5 geographical locations for all social media types taken together were (in

descending order) California, Texas, New York, North Carolina and Washington. For former Governor

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Obama total

Romney total

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Romney, the top 5 geographical locations were California, New York, Texas, North Carolina and

Washington – which were the same locations, but in a different order. The next 4 geographical locations

were also identical for both searches (Florida, Massachusetts, Virginia and Louisiana). However, after

that there was a distinct geographical divergence, with “Obama” being associated with Georgia in the

10th position for example, while “Romney” was associated with New Jersey. Thus, this conversation is

mainly occurring in the same geographical locations for both men, but there is still some divergence

between them.

Repeal vs. Reform

The term “repeal” appears more often in conjunction with “Romney” or “Obama” and “Obamacare”,

than does the term “reform”. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, the difference is more stark for results

that include “Romney”, as shown in Figure 2A below; the comparison of results that include “Obama” is

shown in Figure 2B below.

Figure 2A – comparison of “reform” and “repeal” for searches that included “Romney”

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Figure 2B – comparison of “reform” and “repeal” for searches that included “Obama”

Furthermore, the absolute number of hits involving “repeal” is greater for “Romney” than for “Obama”,

with a total number of 6062 hits overall, and the peak on October 4 2012 reaching 2500 hits. For

“Obama” by contrast, the total number of hits was 4856 overall; the peak on October 4 2012 was under

2000 hits. However, the results for both “Romney” and “Obama” were similar for searches including

“reform”.

Another interesting point is where we are having these conversations about “repeal”; for searches

involving “Romney”, about 34% were on traditional on-line news media; about 24% were on microblogs

such as Twitter and about 19% were on message boards. However, for searches involving “Obama”,

about 42% were on traditional on-line news media, about 24% were on message boards and about 15%

were on social networks such as Facebook, while microblogs were a distant fourth. Thus, “repeal” is

discussed in conjunction with “Obama” and “Obamacare” far more on traditional on-line news media

and far less on direct user communication social media in comparison to searches that include

“Romney”, with the most significant difference seen on microblogs.

For both men, about 50% of the hits for “reform” were on traditional on-line news media, followed by

message boards and social networks such as Facebook; microblogs such as Twitter were barely present.

Thus, we apparently communicate about “repeal” on a wide variety of communication channels,

including microblogs, but we communicate about “reform” mainly on traditional on-line news media.

Twitter, Romney and Mother Jones

While analyzing the results of the search, we found something unexpected: in the Twitter results for

“Romney” and “Obamacare” during this time period, the term “Mother Jones” (also searched as

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“MotherJones”) appeared 552 times, while this term was completely absent from the Twitter results for

“Obama” and “Obamacare”. Conversely, the term “middle class” (also searched as “middleclass”) was

found only 137 times in the Twitter results for “Romney” and “Obamacare” , but was found 835 times in

the Twitter results for “Obama” and “Obamacare”. Thus, our search found the surprising result that for

Twitter results for “Romney” and “Obamacare”, “Mother Jones” appeared much more frequently than

“middle class”.

Of course, these results only show particular combinations of words, and do not relate to sentiment at

all. They also don’t indicate any opinion that may have been expressed in the tweet itself. Still, the

results do demonstrate that social media can be surprising.

Conclusions

We communicate about “Obamacare” in different ways through social media depending upon the topic;

for example, we communicate about “repeal” on a wide variety of communication channels, including

microblogs, but we communicate about “reform” mainly on traditional on-line news media. However,

our communication also changes depending upon the candidate; as noted above, despite President

Obama’s campaign’s excellent reputation on using Twitter, “Romney” and “Obamacare” are being

discussed more often than “Obama” and “Obamacare” on that communication channel. Finally as noted

with regard to “Mother Jones” and the “middle class” searches, social media can have surprising results!

If you are interested in our social media analyses, for Twitter or any other type of social media, please

email us at info@imedsocial.com. We would be happy to discuss such analyses and our tips for successful

social media campaigns, particularly in the areas of hospitals and medical care providers, and also life

science companies, including pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, as well as suppliers

to hospital and medical care providers.