Romney's Blogosphere Buzz

Riding the news of his victory in the Iowa Republican presidential straw poll, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney enjoyed a tremendous boost in attention from the blogosphere, supplanting President Bush as the second-most-blogged-about  person on Sunday, according to Nielsen Buzzmetrics. He is still a distant second to Harry Potter. No one touches Harry Potter. While Bush has since bounced back, presumably from the surge in chatter over the resignation of Karl Rove, Romney's momentary usurpation of the No. 2 spot—or, as Harry Potter fans might know it, the "No. 1 most-blogged-about Muggle"—is a first in recent months.

Other than ceding the No. 2 spot for one day to Hank Aaron, Bush has dominated the honor for weeks. (In his younger days—three months ago—he could give Harry a run for his money,  swapping the top spot with the boy wizard from day to day. But a new book and a new movie in the Harry Potter saga left the president in the dust.) Bush sunk to No. 5 yesterday, also trailing Republican hopeful Ron Paul, a Texas congressman who polls low but enjoys the support of a devoted band of E-guerrillas who keep him high on the online barometers.

Mindy Finn, Romney's director of E-strategy, said yesterday was also a record day for traffic to the campaign's website, even though it was a Sunday, typically not the busiest day for Web surfing. "Usually Sundays are naturally slower days, but yesterday was one of the highest traffic days MittRomney.com has seen since its launch in January," Finn wrote in an E-mail. As the White House increasingly has to compete with the 2008 election for attention in the political arena, the second spot in the ranks—and maybe even the first, if the unthinkable happens and Harry falls—is up for grabs.

But Romney will face more than the likes of zealous Paul supporters wishing to dethrone him. There's always Lindsay Lohan.

--Chris Wilson