Chris Matthews Show Celebrates Obama Having More Facebook Friends Than Gingrich and Romney

March 6th, 2011 2:42 PM

President Obama apparently has 18.5 million Facebook friends which not surprisingly is far more than former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

When the Huffington Post's Howard Fineman told his liberal colleagues on the syndicated "Chris Matthews Show" what a potential advantage this gives the current White House resident, there was much rejoicing (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back. Howard, tell me something I don't know.

HOWARD FINEMAN, HUFFINGTON POST: Well, the organizational battle is starting not just in the states but in cyberspace. On Facebook, Newt Gingrich has 100,000 Facebook fans. Mitt Romney has 800,000, but most significantly, Barack Obama has 18.5 million and that's an organizational tool that his people are right now figuring out how to update for the 2012 campaign. It’s potentially dynamite.

MATTHEWS: Wow.

NORAH O’DONNELL, NBC: How many friends do you have?

FINEMAN: Not many. Zero.

Notice the huge smile on Katty Kay's face as well as Matthews exclaiming, "Wow."

Journalism at its finest, wouldn't you agree?

*****Update: Facebooker Bill Riley wisely points out that 18.5 million friends is not necessarily all that extraordinary for the most powerful person in the world...

Facebook Pages Leaderboard


Sorted by Fans

 

Name

# of Fans

Daily Growth

Weekly Growth

1.

Texas Hold'em Poker

37,822,397

92,714

582,316

2.

Facebook

34,986,927

59,434

370,643

3.

Eminem

29,697,439

66,240

550,214

4.

Michael Jackson

29,548,132

42,132

275,317

5.

Lady Gaga

29,422,358

65,798

393,190

6.

YouTube

28,054,915

42,676

342,902

7.

Family Guy

26,401,542

42,257

259,182

8.

Rihanna

26,154,076

80,242

526,246

9.

Linkin Park

23,869,308

49,580

346,052

10.

South Park

22,999,534

37,814

271,873

11.

Coca-Cola

22,872,438

19,869

196,126

12.

Shakira

22,751,995

72,541

441,259

13.

Justin Bieber

22,534,905

72,774

474,299

14.

The Simpsons

21,451,175

57,659

373,415

15.

Megan Fox

21,172,809

14,409

98,651

16.

Bob Marley

20,975,490

48,064

476,525

17.

Vin Diesel

20,961,525

11,511

99,393

18.

Cristiano Ronaldo

20,944,994

55,709

344,204

19.

Lil Wayne

20,791,655

40,863

247,485

20.

Katy Perry

19,939,458

76,844

384,286

21.

Starbucks

19,858,654

11,414

93,975

22.

Music

19,692,391

22,760

149,023

23.

Twilight

19,474,512

49,385

311,185

24.

The Twilight Saga

19,448,032

7,941

53,214

25.

House

18,977,990

20,649

123,459

26.

Barack Obama

18,538,596

9,347

56,280