Twitter's Trending Topics after Obama's address to Congress.
In a sweet twist of fate, Joe Wilson — but not him — is back in the headlines. This time, though, it’s Rep. Joe Wilson, the Republican from South Carolina who decided to bring the Town Hall Spirit to the Joint Session of Congress. But tonight’s lesson is one important way in which the power of communication has changed hands from the few in Washington to the multitudes across the country.
In the middle of President Obama’s speech, when he mentioned that it’s false to claim that illegal immigrants would get health care under the Democrats’ plan, South Carolina’s Rep. Wilson decided to heckle the President by shouting out in the chamber:
You lie!
But, unlike the town halls, where the force of the incivility and lies was dispersed throughout the nation and allowed for skewed crowds, Wilson failed to read the temperature of the nation properly. He let the unreasoned few convince him of the mood of the many.
He found out tonight that he was wrong. From Hollywood:
Marlee Matlin: Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) regardless of your views, regardless of beliefs, halls of Congress should be respected. Shame.
To the Senate Republicans — and Obama’s GOP challenger this past fall:
Sen. John McCain: “Totally disrespectful. There’s no place for it.”
But Rep. Wilson also found out the hard way.
Rob Miller, Democratic candidate for South Carolina's 2nd Congressional District.
America discovered his opponent tonight: Rob Miller, a veteran of the Iraq War.
Within seconds of Wilson’s chamber heckle, Twitter was aflitter with tweet after tweet about the heckle — and the glare Speaker Pelosi gave the then-unknown-to-Twitter heckler. Soon enough, it was reported that @CongJoeWilson was the heckler. Bam.
As late as 11:40 p.m. tonight, he was referenced in three of the 10 Trending Topics on Twitter — and perhaps four, if you count “Obama.” His name “Joe Wilson” was the No. 1 topic. All of them but “R-SC” remained on the Trending Topics at midnight.
Within minutes, his already announced 2010 Democratic challenger — who had drawn him to his closest victory yet when he challenged him in 2008 — was @RobMillerUSMC on Twitter. The Liberal Twitterverse unanimous response: “Fan-freaking-tastic.”
Soon enough, Wilson’s unknown-before-tonight challenger had raised $10,000, then $20,000.
Then, Wilson apologized:
This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. . . . While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.
By quarter after midnight, though, Rob Miller’s Act Blue page was past $50,500. ($63,000 by 1 a.m. It just keeps going up.) (More than $165,000 at 11:20 a.m.) (By 1 p.m., he crossed the quarter-million dollar mark.) (At 3:45 p.m., he’d crossed the 10,000-donor mark and the $388,000 mark.) It was at less then $2,500 when Obama began speaking to Congress tonight.
By both public shaming and by campaign dollars, Representative Joe Wilson — and hopefully all politicians of all stripes — realized tonight that people can spread messages nearly as quick as you can say them. People who abhor the things you say can respond to — and counteract — your message just as quickly.
[UPDATE: Mike Madden at Salon goes another direction, as he described it on Twitter: "Shouting Rep. Joe Wilson provides the White House the perfect foil for the healthcare speech."
See Rep. Wilson's outburst below the jump.]
Popularity: 14% [?]
Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found
I guess we should thank Representative Joe Wilson for his foolishness
Don’t be too quick to assume that all of the fundraising effect will be negative for Wilson. He rapidly put up on his own campaign website,
JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!
Please support Joe’s fight by donating today.
This fundraising page is getting linked by scores of rightwing websites, urging people to give money to Wilson. The party that used to scorn liberalism for being “touchy-feely” and “bleeding-heart” is now excusing outbursts because Wilson’s emotions and passion and feeeelings were too much for him to contain. It’s probably a good thing WFB died before he saw all this.