Analyzed: 500 Comments on Sarah Palin's Facebook Page

(May 10) -- After Sarah Palin made a pitch last week for former HP CEO Carly Fiorina in the California GOP Senate primary, her Facebook followers jumped on her en masse, making it clear they won't stand for even a perceived softening of her politics. The blowback made headlines -- but it also made us wonder what the dialogue looks like after a typical Palin post. To find out, we gave a random sampling of 500-plus comments on Palin's Facebook page a close reading.

Preface: How Carly-Gate started

"Please consider that Carly is the conservative who has the potential to beat California's liberal senator, Barbara Boxer, in November."

-- Sarah Palin, in her Facebook post endorsing Carly Fiorina for the California Senate. She noted that the former Hewett Packard executive clawed her way to the top of the corporate hierarchy from a modest upbringing on her own merits. After the original post drew sharp criticism, Palin had to update and clarify her stance, noting that Fiorina's various policy positions are favorable to the conservative cause. "That's no RINO," Palin added. "That's a winner." source

Reader response to Palin's endorsement

Oh boy, they weren't happy: Most of her Facebook commenters weren't expecting Palin to stump for Fiorina, she of the infamous "Demon Sheep" online ad. Many many see fellow Republican DeVore as the more conservative candidate -- a fact they strenuously pointed out to Palin:

8,205
people gave Palin's endorsement a Facebook like
2,403
commented on her Fiorina
post (as of early Monday)

54%
commenters don't like Fiorina, and their opinion of Palin was lowered by the choice
34%
supported Fiorina or were willing to give Carly a chance thanks to Palin's endorsement
12%
posted no opinion or spoke about topics unrelated to Palin's support of Fiorina

How does this compare to some of Palin's other posts?

HER Commenters ARE TYPICALLY NOT A DISSENTING BUNCH. An analysis of roughly 500 comments to Palin's posts spanning over a month shows that comments disagreeing with Palin are fairly rare, as are comments from liberal posters who randomly show up:

80% supported Palin or the topic she was posting about

14%
had something negative to say about the topic or Palin in general
6%
posted about topics unrelated to Palin's politics, including spam

» What prompts a Palin post?: The 10 included in our study were mostly politically oriented, though one wished readers a happy Easter. Two specifically had to do with her or her family (the hacker case, the ethics charges against her). Three specifically endorsed candidates (including Fiorina), and the other four were based on things happening in the news cycle (the oil spill, the Pentagon ditching Franklin Graham for the National Day of Prayer, her opinion on the financial reform bill and President Barack Obama's military stance).
» The nature of the comments: While a handful are off-topic from the post at hand, many tend to either offer their opinions or disagreements with the topic at hand or were general cheerleading, "Go Sarah!"-type posts.
» Do any liberals chime in?: They do, but very rarely, and (no surprise) when they do, they're mostly critical of Palin.

And how about Sarah Palin's wall?

Unlike some celebrities on Facebook, she (usually) leaves her wall open. Probably due to the controversy surrounding Fiorina, it was recently closed. But when we analyzed 500 earlier posts (minus the link spam, of which there was a lot) on Palin's wall -- or about three weeks' worth -- here's what we found:

92% supported Palin and generally
had very nice things to say

5%
had something negative
to say about Palin
3%
were fairly neutral toward the ex-Alaska governor's politics

» "I love your book!": Thirty-nine people who commented on Palin's wall talked about having just read "Going Rogue" and how profound they found it. That's about 8 percent, or more than all of the people who posted negative comments. Sample take on "Going Rogue": "I recently read and thoroughly [enjoyed] your book. But, I have to say one thing, I'm glad Track wasn't born during badminton season!"
» "Palin in 2012!": Another 32 used the word "2012" in reference to Palin running for president, with a handful throwing their support to other candidates (including Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio). A number of people also asked the governor to endorse other political campaigns.
» Do any liberals chime in?: No -- no clearly liberal wall comments were observed.

Has Palin caught flack from her Facebook followers before?

Yes -- when she stumped for John McCain in his Senate race. While many people understood why she was supporting the former presidential candidate who brought her to prominence, it was still a source of controversy.

81%
didn't like the idea of Palin supporting John McCain
19%
supported Palin, or at least understood her support

» Sample quote: "Why are you supporting John McCain's re-election campaign? He only seems conservative when you are around." There were a lot of comments like this.
» Name-calling: Throughout the post, commenters called McCain a "Democrat," a "progressive," a "progressive conservative" or a "RINO." Hey, that's not nice!
» Residual effect: Many of the negative comments weeks later reflected frustration with her support of McCain.

Our single favorite comment to a Palin Facebook post

"I have mixed feelings on something ... I don't know if I like your hair worn UP ... If you do wear your hair up, I would suggest you wear dark rimmed glasses. I'm just sayin' ..."

-- From a random Facebooker who we won't name for the sake of his own privacy. There were a lot of off-beat comments like this one, including one guy who asked Palin what her favorite kind of gun was, and another inviting her pheasant-hunting in South Dakota.

Ernie Smith is the editor of ShortFormBlog, a news site equally obsessed with numbers and bad jokes.