Regardless of what President Obama and his political advisers had hoped for, the three-state Midwest bus tour last week prompted far more criticism and ridicule than support in Twitter comments, according to this week’s Hill Hexagon.

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An analysis of Twitter traffic by Crimson Hexagon over the days of the tour showed that 72 percent of the opinions expressed were negative, while 22 percent were neutral and only 6 percent were favorable.

Among the negative comments, 21 percent were generally negative toward Obama, 17 percent called it a campaign stunt, 15 percent complained about taxpayers picking up the tab, 12 percent offered derisive names for the tour — similar to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s “Magical Misery Tour” — and 6 percent complained that he was not in Washington working.

Neutral comments were primarily mentions of the stops he made on his tour and what he said and did while on it. The favorable reaction came along the lines that previous presidents have conducted similar tours and relief that Obama was making the case for his policies.

Crimson Hexagon reviewed 47,645 mentions of the bus tour on Twitter, of which 38,185 expressed an opinion.







