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Bill Clinton beats NFL for viewers

September 7, 2012 at 4:48AM

Despite competition from the NFL season opener, former President Bill Clinton drew 25.1 million viewers on the second night of DNC coverage on nine news networks Wednesday night.

That was more than the 23.9 million who watched the game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys and just about 1 million viewers less than the 26.2 million people who tuned into First Lady Michelle Obama's speech on the first night of the convention.

The Nielsen Co. said about 26.2 million people watched the opening night of the Democratic National Convention compared with 22.3 million who watched the first night of the Republican National Convention when Ann Romney spoke.

Michelle Obama was a big hit Monday in a measurement by the social media network Twitter. The company said she was responsible for at least 28,003 tweets per minute shortly after she delivered her speech. The peak moment at the GOP convention was 14,289 tweets per minute during Mitt Romney's acceptance speech, Twitter said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUTIN CALLS OBAMA 'VERY HONEST MAN'

Russian President Vladimir Putin sauntered into U.S. politics on Thursday, praising President Obama as "a very honest man" and chastising the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, for describing Russia as "without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe."

Putin said he believed that if Obama is re-elected, a compromise could be reached on the contentious issue of U.S. plans for a missile defense system in Europe, which Russia has strongly opposed. He said that if Romney becomes president, Moscow's fears about the missile system -- that it is, despite U.S. assurances, directed against Russia -- would almost certainly prove true.

Putin said of Obama: "I met him recently on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, where we had a chance to talk. And though we talked mostly about Syria, I could still take stock of my counterpart. My feeling is that he is a very honest man, and that he sincerely wants to make many good changes. But can he do it? Will they let him do it?"

When asked if he could work with a Romney administration, he said, "Yes, we can. We'll work with whichever president gets elected by the American people. But our effort will only be as efficient as our partners will want it to be."

NEW YORK TIMES

ROMNEY DEFENDS NOT MENTIONING WAR

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday defended his decision not to discuss the Afghanistan war in his convention speech. He said he didn't plan to watch President Obama's convention address but offered some advice, saying Obama should discuss promises he has already made instead of offering new ones.

"I went to the American Legion, described my views with regards to our military, my commitment to our military, my commitment to our men and women in uniform," he said in New Hampshire.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAMES TAYLOR AND THE EMPTY CHAIR

A convention. A celebrity. An empty chair. Don't worry, said singer James Taylor, there's nothing to fear.

A week after Clint Eastwood appeared at the Republican National Convention and created a mini-phenomenon -- replete with its own Twitter meme -- by talking to a chair on stage, Taylor couldn't resist a joke at the actor's expense as he opened up the final night of the Democratic convention. "It's an empty chair, it makes you nervous," Taylor said. "Don't worry -- I'm going to sit on it. I'm not going to talk to it."

Taylor promptly plopped down and launched into one of his most famous hits "Carolina in My Mind," a particularly apropos tune given the convention's host state. "I'm an old white guy, and I love Barack Obama," Taylor said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS