Rock 'Em Sock 'Em: The Election Twitter Battle
By: Do you feel like you've been pummeled by election ads?
Now's your chance to fight back.
Tweet Punch Out! takes the presidential campaign where the second debate almost went. You know, the debate where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney almost came to blows?
"Who's going to win the election on Twitter?" the site asks.
It displays a live stream of the classic Mattel toy Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots in action.
In this case, the red boxing robot represents Republican Romney, the blue one is standing in for Democrat Obama. Each time someone on Twitter mentions Romney, the red robot throws a punch at his opponent. Each time someone tweets about Obama, the blue robot lashes out. (Read More: A Sprint Through Swing States in the Campaign's Last Hours.)
Who's ahead? No contest. Romney is winning by a knockout not seen since Ronald Reagan politically beat the socks off Jimmy Carter. As of this writing, Romney has thrown three times as many punches as the president. Time to throw in the towel!
Maybe not.
Just because someone is tweeting about a candidate doesn't mean the person is voting for that candidate. A blow-by-blow examination of tweets displayed on Tweet Punch Out shows quite the opposite, in fact. (Read More: Had It With Election Ads?)
"I swear on everything that if Romney wins this election I am moving out of this country," tweeted "Rebecca."
Well, Rebecca, that tweet mentions Romney, which allows the red robot to hit your guy, the blue robot. Happy?
How could such a fun idea backfire like some binder full of Big Birds? (I don't know what that means, but I've been waiting to say it for weeks.) Who would create a game so lame that it turns anti-Romney tweets into anti-Obama punches, and vice versa? (Read More: Obama or Romney, Who'd You Rather?)
Blame it on Rio.
I noticed the website's address ends in ".br", suggesting it originated in Brazil. Maybe something was lost in translation. Or maybe the Brazilians are waxing philosophical this election. There's been so much mud slinging it's hard to tell who's hitting whom anymore.
—By CNBC's Jane Wells
@janewells
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