President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on stage together at the end of the last debate at Lynn University on Monday night.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)
As President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney shared their
views on Afghanistan and Libya during the final debate before the Nov. 6
election, Twitter users conveyed their boredom.
"Zzzzz" was a
theme in many tweets, as were declarations of abandoning the verbal
contest for the football game between the Detroit Lions and the Chicago
Bears.
MORE: Claims concerning Syria, Libya, Iraq are scrutinized
"Looking at the GWU (George Washington University) course
guide for Spring 2013. Things I'm doing while listening to the debate,"
Gordon Chaffin, @Gordon_Chaffin, of Washington, D.C.
"Decided to
skip live-watching debate in favor of a long run and catch up via
Twitter instead," tweeted Silveraspen, @silveraspen, of Colorado. "It
appears this was the right choice."
China Cat Sunflower, @haleigherin, of New Hampshire and Vermont, tweeted: "is this even a debate? im falling asleep."
And
though there was no moment to compare with Romney's declaration in the
first debate that he loved Big Bird, Twitter followers latched onto an
instance when Obama mocked a criticism by former Massachusetts governor
Romney, who said the Navy has fewer ships than it had in 1916.
"Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets," the president said.
The
debate overall was the topic of 6.5 million tweets -- fewer than those
of the first two president debates or the vice presidential debate.
The
"horses and bayonets" comment seemed to be the peak moment, setting off
105,767 tweets per minute by those using the #debates hashtag.
By
10:30 p.m. ET, one of several Facebook pages with the "horses and
bayonets" theme had generated 561 "likes." The page had a clip from the
movie Gettysburg and pictures of people on horses with bayonets. Facebook user Max Bauer posted on the page, "Is anyone watching the debate?"
After
the debate, a #horsesandbayonets hashtag, or search term, was growing
in popularity and a website titled CavalryMenForRomney.com emerged. A
Twitter handle called Horses and Bayonets, or @HorseBayonet, cropped up,
too, but it attracted only four followers and generated just 11 tweets.
One read, "The amount of foreign policy being debated tonight was the
smallest it's been since 1917."
Moderator Bob Schieffer's slip of
the tongue when he made reference to Obama bin Laden, as opposed to
Osama bin Laden, generated some buzz on Twitter. Twitter followers
expressed surprise at the gaffe by the host of CBS' Face the Nation.
USA Today