Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney lambasting Donald Trump.
It was like the former Republican presidential nominee was coming into the coliseum, like a Roman dictator, to give a Ceasar’s Thumb to the current Republican presidential front runner. While the former Massaschusetts governor gave an unequivocal thumbs down on the current leader, Donald Trump, social media reaction was more mixed.
Here’s one headline
Reaction to Romney’s Speech on Trump Comes Swiftly, but Mostly Negative
“After Mitt Romney on Thursday gave a speech that denounced Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee, many journalists, politicians and Trump supporters reacted negatively on Twitter.
Romney called for Republicans not to nominate the billionaire businessman, saying that his views on Russian President Vladimir Putin are an example of “evil trumping good.”
Trump drew first blood before the press conference in a pre-empted attack on Romney, along with his son, Eric Trump, and Dan Scavino, director for Trump’s social media.”
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Others tucked the reaction under the headline that social media kicked into a frenzy such as this one:
Romney’s anti-Trump speech ignites social media debate
Ms. Tennery”s piece in Reuters cited surveys saying Twitter responses were mixed, with those favoring Romney slightly ahead of those siding with the real estate billionaire.
“Twitter users posted about Romney roughly 38 times per second following the speech, according to Zoomph, the social media analytics firm. Romney’s sentiment score, a measure of how positively users discuss a topic, was slightly higher than Trump’s following the speech, according to the firm.
“Mitt Romney” quickly became one of the top-trending topics on Twitter in the United States. In a period of about four hours after the former Massachusetts governor’s speech, there were roughly 529,000 tweets about Romney on Twitter, according to the social media site’s own metrics.
Trump’s response, a barrage of put-downs, also generated social media attention. During a campaign rally in Maine, Trump said Romney had begged him for an endorsement when he was running for the White House in 2012.
Romney said later he would not have accepted Trump’s endorsement four years ago if Trump had spoken as he does now.
“If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement,” Romney tweeted (@MittRomney), referring to the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan. Republican leaders, including another former Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, backed Romney’s harsh critique of Mr. Trump as did South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and governor John Kasich of Ohio, still a presidential candidate.”
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Social network scientist Duncan Watts and others talks about social contagion, the threshold in a network where message or meme goes viral. We may be at that point now in the current Republican presidential contest. In the meantime, more lions are coming into the coliseum as gladiator candidates attempt to fend them off. The contest is nowhere near over.
Question: Is Trump the presidential candidate version of Russell Crowe and get his vengeance?
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