Despite Sen. John McCain hitting a new all-time high, the May 8, 2008 SIPP Index Ratings show the two Democratic Presidential candidates, Sen. Barak Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton continuing their dominance in Internet market share.  However,  Obama has slipped off his all-time market share highs, and Clinton continues in a downward trend, suggesting some degree of Internet fatigue with the Democrats.   Yet, the Democratic lead is now a substantial 2.48 times greater than the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee.   Obama fell down  .34 points to 37.40% while Clinton fell for the third straight week to at 20.13%, down  .17 points.   These numbers do account for the Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

McCain’s poor Internet market showing continues the GOP Opposite Party Margin (”OPM”) decline.  Obama’s OPM is at a very competitive 3.22 to 1 ratio, down from last week’s  3.31 to 1 ratio.  His all time high was 3.61 to 1, immedidately after the Super Tuesday primary.  Clinton fell off her last week’s third all time high OPM, from 1.73 to 1 down .o5 points, a new all time low.  Her previous all-time highs were 2.19 to 1, also immediately after the Super Tuesday Primary.  Her previous lowest opposite party margin was only 1.82 to 1.

Despite Democratic slippage, McCain is still able to inch up only one point, to .40 to 1 OPM, which is only three points above his all-time low opposite party margin since becoming the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee.  This rating is after the Democrat’s bruising Indiana and North Carolina primary battles, and does show marginal impact from the McCain campaign media push.

McCain’s gains appear to be the result of Clinton’s decline as the Arizona Senator remains unable to substantially gain any traction against Obama.  Obama’s OPM slippage of .09 points is not made up by McCain’s .01 point gain.

As McCain’s inability to make any substantive inroads shows, the GOP’s dismal performance in ongoing SIPP Ratings continues to demonstrates the Party’s failure to grasp command of the Internet, which is taking an ever increasing market share from television, the principal medium for political campaigning.   This week is the second time that McCain has moved off his 10% to 11% range for Internet market share, despite being the presumptive nominee.  McCain has only two more weeks to make gains before the Memorial Day weekend, a high water mark for political interest until the party conventions in late summer.  If Clinton does withdraw from the nomination battle before Denver, Obama’s Internet ratings are expected to get a substantial boost, as Democrats are expected to demonstrate a degree of unity before their convention.   Instead of going against two Democrats, McCain will have to compete against only one, which by accounts suggest is Obama.

The Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index is the first quantitative metric to measure the Internet-wide performance of each Presidential candidate for the 2008 election. The Index is comprised of over 650 quantitative factors measuring the level of support and how well each candidate is connecting with individuals across the Internet. The score for each candidate represents their overall Internet market share.  Click on the Spartan Political Performance Index at Links for further information.