Opinion: GOP debate viewers set ratings record

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Gee, maybe Americans are beginning to pay attention. Maybe.

The television ratings for last night’s Republican debate in Florida show that 4.9 million folks watched -- 4.4 million on CNN itself and another 500,000 on CNN Headline News.

That makes it the highest rated primary debate in cable news history, surpassing the previous record-holder of only two weeks ago, the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, which drew 4 million. Reviews of the debates differ as shown here and here as eight people per party argue over what they thought they heard their opponents claim and attempt to draw divisive partisan distinctions foreign to the everyday lives of normal people.

But what seems to be happening is that the audiences have more than doubled since the early debates a few months ago. Candidates have become more practiced and argumentative. Media coverage has increased. The end of college football’s regular season has left many passions pent up. And the start of balloting approaches almost as quickly as the shopping days left until Christmas dwindle.

It would be comforting to think that as American and other troops struggle in Iraq to bring stability sufficient for an infant democracy to maybe survive there, the folks living blithely back home were informing themselves on the choices they can make when the voting they’ve taken for granted all their lives occurs peacefully as scheduled this winter -- and most of us don’t bother to participate.

But then we checked the population clock on the Census Bureau website. At last check tonight we had an American population of 303,486, 748. Which means that slightly more than 98.4% of the country was not watching.

--Andrew Malcolm