Five Weeks In, And Obama Still Draws A Crowd

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By Lisa de Moraes

Thursday, February 26, 2009

At least 52.4 million people watched President Obama's first Address to the Joint Session of Congress, according to Nielsen data.

FYI, first Address to the Joint Session of Congress is Washington-speak for "guy who just got inaugurated five weeks ago's State of the Union address."

And for the sake of sounding smart around the water cooler/at the cocktail party, here are some fun points of comparison:

-- Obama's Not Quite State of the Union address clocked about 3 million more people than saw his first news conference as president, about two weeks earlier.

-- Obama's NQSOTU address attracted about 16 million more people than Sean Penn's "You Commie, Homo-Loving Sons of Guns" Best Actor Oscar acceptance speech at the Academy Awards two nights earlier.

-- Obama's NQSOTU address copped the biggest crowd for a SOTU/NQSOTU address since President George W. Bush's SOTU in January 2003 -- otherwise known as the Lead-Up to the Iraq War Address, or the Yellowcake Uranium Address. That time at bat, Bush clocked at least 62 million viewers. That was Bush's best performance ever.

-- Obama's NQSOTU address bagged nearly 13 million more people than were attracted to President Bush's NQSOTU address shortly after he was inaugurated in January 2001.

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