#DebateExpectations2012

Sandhya Kambhampati 

sjkambhampati@gmail.com

@sandhya__k

 With 37 days left until the election and 3 days until the debates, tweeters and political reporters are letting, as @jimacostacnn tweeted at the beginning of the week,"the debate expectation games begin."

Tweeters and reporters from all different media outlets are focusing on who is going to win this presidential debate. 

 @CNN  tweeted about what Romney needs to do change the race. Mentions of the article, such as the one below, show that tweeters are a bit annoyed and disturbed by how media outlets are stating what they believe will help the candidates win. 

In the past, the debates were not the most exciting thing to watch on TV.  It's only been the last few debates that have really been popular. So how will this debate be different? 

Twitter.

Both campaigns are using it to raise awareness of some of the issues they will be discussing during the debates.  News outlets are not only analyzing how each of the candidates can win the debates, but are also turning to Twitter to ask tweeters what they would ask the candidates, like the tweet from @meetthepress below. 

While some may say that the #debateexpectations are lower, to me, it seems as if they are higher.

Because of Twitter, word of what each of the candidates are saying can be spread faster, creating conversation, generating more viewers and therefore, start another debate.

Looking at the tweets below, you can see a trend of how many of the tweets are about Governor Mitt Romney  and how he can turn the debates around to make himself stand out more in the eyes of the voters. 

It's surprising how much less coverage President Barack Obama got about what he can do in the debates to win. 

These #debates2012 are going to be a different kind of debates that will spark the attention of the Twitter users. 

Because of the many live streams online, I'm interested to see how the debates will turn out and how Mr. Obama and Governor Romney will be using their own social media outlets to tweet during the debates.

Personally, I think the expectations will become higher as we get closer to the debates and more criticism of each of the candidates will appear.  

What do you think? Are you watching the presidential debates? Follow @sandhya__k  during the debates for full coverage & my analysis.