Tweeting again

Nonsuch HP is having another go with Twitter. We signed up with @nonsuchhp over 2 years ago but frankly didn't do a lot with it.  There is clearly great potential on Twitter to link up with other historians, politicians, journalists etc so please take a look at our Twitter page and let us know if there is anyone else we should be following. We have included a "latest tweets" section on the right hand side of the blog, and if you think there is anything else we should be doing, or any trends we should be following, let us know.

On that subject, you may find this blog post of interest showing tweeting trends during last week's political debates between @BarackObama and @MittRomney. It may not surprise you to know that the most popular subject of interest (hence the picture above) was #BigBird following Mitt Romney's comments...

Gingrich wins South Carolina

The Republican primary race is now wide open following Newt Gingrich's shock win in South Carolina on Saturday. The scale of his victory, with 40% of the vote, 12% ahead of Romney, is particularly impressive. This suggests that the campaign will now go on for many months. Gingrich has appealed to Rick Santorum's supporters to join him as a conservative force against Romney but Santorum also has something to be cheerful about following the news that he actually won the Iowa Caucus after all. All eyes now move to Florida, who hold their primary on 31 January.

Why do you think Gingrich has done so well? Is this a "game-changer" or are Romney's prospects sound in the long run? How much is Obama enjoying all this? Please let us know.

PS: Here are some useful resources - a "battleground map" showing some of the key states for the 2012 election, and the CNN "delegate calculator"

Economist on Romney

There are some excellent articles in this week's Economist on Mitt Romney and the situation in the US Primaries this week.

• Here is the leading article assessing his credentials and whether he can be a credible opponent to Obama in November.
• Here is a whizzy interactive map showing the latest poll data for each state - Romney leads in most but sometimes not by much!
• Here is the Economists "Politics in America" blog with the latest thoughts and developments.

If you have any other recommendations from elsewhere on the web, please let us know.

Republican Debate

There was a lively debate between the Republican candidates at the Ronald Reagan Library in California last night. Eight candidates took part (Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum), but the debate was dominated by clashes between Mitt Romney, who had been considered to be the front runner for many months, and Rick Perry, the governor of Texas.  Perry only joined the race last month but has already made a considerable impact, particularly amongst the Tea Party movement.  Perry aggressively criticised many of Romney's policies as governor of Massachusets, but may have damaged his position with more moderate Republicans with his dismissive comments of social security as a "Ponzi scheme" (basically a dodgy financial arrangement) and a "monstrous lie".  It will be interesting to see what effect the debate has on their poll ratings, and watch out for the "Tea Party Debate" on Monday.

PS: Click the video above to watch them in action (after a brief ad), and here are reports and reaction from CNN and Fox News.

PPS: There is also some useful comment here from the New York Times