The Palin Phenomenon

For the first time in the three months since the general election campaign began, Sen John McCain last week generated more coverage than Sen Barack Obama. But he was still outshone by another newsmaker during the GOP convention -- his own running mate. Gov Sarah Palin, the first woman on a Republican ticket, was the focus of feverish attention as the media tried to find out more about her, convey her record and biography, and calculate her impact on the race. For the week of Sept. 1-7, Gov Palin was a significant or dominant factor in 60% of the campaign stories, according to the Campaign Coverage Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Sen McCain was fairly close behind, a significant or dominant factor in 52% of the stories. Put another way, Gov Palin enjoyed more coverage as a VP candidate during the GOP convention than Sen Obama did a week earlier when he became the first person of color to accept the nomination for president of a major party. With the other ticket making most of the news, Sen Obama was a focus in 22% of the stories last week, by far his lowest week of coverage in the general election season. His running mate Sen Joe Biden registered at 2%.