Mitt, Paul winning Facebook primary

If Mitt Romney was worried about a late surge from Rick Santorum toppling him in the New Hampshire primary, his fans on Facebook knew better. According to an exclusive survey of all U.S. Facebook users provided to POLITICO by Facebook, the volume of posts, status updates, links shared to friends’ walls and user comments about Romney in the days leading up to the Granite State primary predicted a strong finish. On Jan. 10, primary day, Romney reached over 100,000 mentions on the social network, about the same number as Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), who finished second in New Hampshire. Although Rep Paul finished 17 points behind Romney in New Hampshire, his prowess on social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, where he has legions of devoted fans eager to spread his message, is well-known.