June 20, 2008
Posted: 01:46 PM ET
From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
Clinton has the most support among Facebook members speculating about Obama's running mate.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – In an election that's been indelibly shaped by the Internet, veepstakes speculation is alive and well on Facebook, world's sixth most-trafficked Web site. Among Democrats on the popular social networking site, Hillary Clinton is far and away the favorite to be tapped as Barack Obama's running mate. For John McCain, Mike Huckabee leads the prospective vice presidential pack. More than 3,000 Facebook members have joined over 40 groups supporting Clinton for vice president, though most of the groups were originally formed to push for an Obama-Clinton unity ticket during the long primary battle. Once Clinton dropped out, many of these Facebook groups started pushing for her to be tapped as Obama's running mate. Clinton is trailed by John Edwards, who is backed by 18 groups with nearly 2,000 members. He's followed by Bill Richardson with 514 Facebook supporters, putting the New Mexico governor slightly ahead of Joe Biden, who has 510 fans hoping Obama puts him on the ticket. The Democratic frontrunners are followed, in descending order, by Jim Webb, Kathleen Sebelius, Al Gore, Wes Clark, Chuck Hagel, Evan Bayh, Mark Warner, Claire McCaskill and Janet Napolitano. Three students at an all-girls Catholic high school in Houston are rooting for Obama to tap long shot Democratic candidate Mike Gravel. And one 18-member Facebook group, launched in February of last year, is holding out hope that Obama will choose Bill Clinton as his running mate.
Among Republicans, Huckabee (3,697 Facebook supporters) and Mitt Romney (over 2,700 supporters) are the favorites to share the ticket with McCain. But aside from McCain's former presidential rivals, few GOP politicians seem to be generating much buzz on the site. Bobby Jindal, Sarah Palin and Condoleezza Rice have a few hundred supporters each, just a fraction of the frontrunners' total. They're followed by Haley Barbour, Fred Thompson, John Thune and Mark Sanford. And Charlie Crist, who regularly tops speculation among political observers, draws just 11 supporters. One of them is Canadian. Filed under: Barack Obama Hillary Clinton John McCain Veepstakes
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