DrUrbanPolicy

Social media may be the place where Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga dominate by sharing their thoughts with their teenage fans and a singer named PSY can get 848 million views (and counting) of a viral music video , but don't be fooled into thinking it's just for entertainment. During the last Presidential campaign, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had tens of millions of followers and exponentially many more social media interactions.  Just one of the posts by Gov. Romney referenced at the link above had 140,226 likes, 6,773 shares and 16,787 comments on Facebook. To paraphrase the Late Sen. Everett Dirksen, "a billlion here, a billion there, and pretty soon we're talking real (numbers)." There are only so many pop stars and presidential candidates, but Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have grown to over one billion users . The professional networking site LinkedIn claims over 161 million  users.   While the individual web sites may come and go, the g

The President mentioned in his victory speech that we "have to fix" the situation at the polls for those who waited "in line a long time." Whatever your politics are, you have to agree with that sentiment - people in Miami were waiting in line past midnight . No wonder that Florida wasn't called on election night coverage - this may be the first time that people voted after Election Day.  (It also explains makes me feel better about the late timing of that speech and the concession speech - I can't imagine waiting in line to vote after an election had already been conceded.)  Voters wait in a two-hour line inside a Maryland polling place Why were people in Miami-Dade waiting for so long? If their experiences with Florida's 11 amendments were as complicated as has been reported (and five hour wait times seems to confirm that they were) it's another confirmation that voters are being asked to do too much (see Lazy Legislation parts 1 and 2 ).