Widely credited with helping John McCain beat out Mitt Romney as the Republican candidate for president in 2008, by taking votes away from Romney, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee remains a favorite with people who are known as “values voters.” In a recent straw poll conducted at Value Voters Summit in Washington, DC last week, Huckabee beat out all challengers as the crowd favorite to represent the Republican Party in 2012.

Looking Ahead to 2012

Though President Obama has been in office a mere eight months, conservative and faith-based voters are already looking ahead to the next campaign. Huckabee, who currently hosts a one-hour variety show on FoxNews every Saturday night, has successfully expanded his influence among some voters though he hasn’t announced his plans for the next election. Likely, by early 2011, those plans will become known, starting what will certainly be a lengthy and perhaps acrimonious campaign season.

Huckabee garnered twenty-eight percent of the votes with former Massachusetts governor Romney finishing second with 12.4% of the vote. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin pulled down 12.23% and 12.06% of the vote. Close behind was Indiana congressmen Mike Pence with 11.89% of the vote. Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul each received votes with five percent of those who voted choosing “undecided.”

Pastor Mike Huckabee

Former governor Huckabee’s star has been rising for some time among Republicans, particularly those who identify themselves as evangelical or “born again” Christians. Huckabee served as Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007, stepping down in order to run for president. A former Baptist pastor and leader of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention from 1989 to 1991, Huckabee has been credited with mending race relations, by encouraging his white congregation to accept black members.

Besides identifying a leading candidate for president, 40% of the two thousand social conservatives who attended the summit said that abortion was their most important issue when selecting a candidate. 18% identified religious liberty, 7% same-sex marriage while 6% said that tax cuts was the most important issue to them.

The 2009 Value Voters Summit began on Friday, September 18th and wrapped up on Sunday morning, September 20th. The Family Research Council, led by Tony Perkins, hosted the event which was held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in our nation’s capitol. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, actor Stephen Baldwin, Star Parker, Ken Blackwell and Bill O’Reilly were among the people who spoke this year.

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A Twitter based search engine worth using!

Twitter has emerged as one of the most powerful social media tools available. Founded in 2006, this micro-blogging site has revolutionized the way people interact online, through 140 character snippets where they can share a message, promote a product, proclaim news, etc. WordJourney is one of three Twitter accounts I manage, allowing me to connect with like-minded people as we advance the Good News.

Twitter Is Useful & Faulty

But Twitter is just as faulty as it is useful. Its plain interface has seen some improvements of late, but it is the supplemental “Twitter tools” developed by third parties which truly extends its usefulness. Had these tools not been developed, Twitter probably would have died shortly after its launch.

I wrote about Twitter Search on my Matt’s Musings blog back in January, singing its praises as a wonderful way to search for tweets apart from the nasty Twitter interface. I’ve used it several times, but it hasn’t been my favorite way to perform a Twitter search. Instead, I have been spending plenty of time over at Topsy.com which describes itself as a search engine powered by tweets. Yes, if you are a Twitter user, then Topsy just may be the site for you.

The Topsy Approach To Search

Topsy takes a different approach to web search unlike Yahoo Search, Google, Bing and similar sites. Instead of searching for specific files or documents, Topsy categorizes conversations, using Twitter as its focal point.

For example, if you were to type in the words “Christmas carols” you would find portions of conversations about that topic. The results delivered by Topsy are those things Twitter folks link to, when they’re speaking about your search terms. As Topsy says, the search engine “…ranks results based on how well they match your search terms, and the influence of the people talking about them.”

Topsy’s results are in real time as they are based on current conversations. In addition, you can find out what was talked about over the past week or month, extending back to when the service was first launched this past May. What’s more, every Twitter user has a Topsy page where all of your Tweets can be seen together.

First Seen Through Trackbacks

I first noticed Topsy about a month ago when my blog trackbacks included record of tweets people had been making about this article or that one. I decided to save each trackback in order to gauge just how well Topsy worked. Definitely, Topsy has been sending a trickle of traffic my way while giving me an accurate indication of the number of people who retweeted my articles.

Topsy does rank people by influence, meaning the more you retweet, the less influence that you have. But, when people retweet you, you gain some influence. Check out your particular articles and you’ll see that at least one person who tweeted was probably an “influencer” — a Twitter user that Topsy holds in high regard.

You’ve probably found me on Twitter through wordjourney or perhaps via theautowriter or mattkeegan. Regardless, I’m actively tweeting this or that offering a good share of retweets too as I relay news about the persecuted church or some other sort of Christian endeavor. Topsy is a useful tool because it pulls everything together for me, offering accurate search results listing Twitter conversations.

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