Obama leads Romney in Twitter poll

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- The first Twitter Political Index Wednesday indicated tweeters have more positive feelings about President Obama than Mitt Romney.

Obama led Romney 34 percent to 25 percent in the inaugural approval index, a partnership of Twitter, social analytics firm Topsy and two leading polling firms, Mellman Group and North Star Opinion Research.

By tracking and analyzing more than 400 million daily tweets, Twitter will provide a daily real time update on user's response to the presidential candidates through the rest of the 2012 campaign.

"Imagine getting a glimpse into election conversations happening all over the nation everyday," Topsy Chief Executive Officer Duncan Greenwood said in a release. "Topsy analyzes massive amounts of tweets in real time to measure those conversations, understand what people are talking about and make sense of it."

Twitter said the index will be capable of responding almost instantly to unexpected political events.

Twitter's head of government, news and social innovation, Adam Sharp, compared the Twitter Political Index to technologies like radar and satellite that "joined the thermometer and barometer to give forecasters a more complete picture of the weather."