The Facebook Guide to What's On America's Mind

So, this diary is going to be shorter than its title, I know ... but tonight I observed (again) an interesting phenomenon that on its own doesn't mean too much, but when added to other observable phenomena like thousands of people camping in city parks, may give us a clue to what's on people's minds. And it's on that wonderful sociological research tool -- Facebook.

I follow President Obama on Facebook. As do 23,484,733 other people. I know, I know -- it's not really him, just an account in his name run by someone or other in his campaign's communications office. Still, it always fascinates me to see (a) what his person chooses to post, and (b) what reaction it gets.

Some of the updates are just "stuff" -- things the campaign does because it's a campaign. Like this:

Some of the updates get a little bump in Likes from followers -- a fairly normal update gets some thousands of Likes, like this one:

But occasionally, one comes through on the Facebook stream that has obviously touched a nerve. THAT'S what I mean about the Facebook guide to what's on people's minds. When one of President Obama's Facebook posts goes over 20,000 or so, you know it's touched a nerve.

So check out the one that caused me to do this diary:

Highly-paid political consultant: "Hmm, looks like people might agree with the President on this one." Ya think?

I sure hope someone in the White House is tracking this as well. If they are, they can clearly see that they need to pound this message over and over. It's the right message, and the right approach.

Facebook says so.