Facebook has launched a new US Politics application, which makes it much easier to track the “popularity” (measured by number of Facebook supporters) of candidates (including governor, Senate, and House candidates). I’ve also noted (in my spreadsheet) the number of supporters for candidates last week (but didn’t post it).
There are few surprises: Obama is still crushing everyone (his 107,007 supporters make up more than 50% of the entire field!); Ron Paul is still enjoying his “Colbert bump” as he still leads the GOP race ahead of Mitt Romney; McCain’s campaign is still on life support; and Giuliani still doesn’t have a Facebook profile.
There is one surprise: actor Fred Thompson (who’s still not officially a candidate) is surging ahead, jumping from 611 Facebook supporters on Friday (July 13) to 4,988 today. That figure catapults him into 4th place, just behind McCain (5,101 as of today).