In the past week, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum took on (and lost to) a college student, Google is ramping up for another GOP debate and we've got stats on how the Republican candidates stack up against each other on social.
This is the Week in Politics & Digital.
Santorum Video Goes Viral
When presidential candidate Rick Santorum visited Penn State, he probably wasn't expecting an audience-made video to go viral. In it, he defends his stance on homosexuality. One student stands up to Santorum and the fireworks start flying.
The video has received more than 100,000 views since it was posted August 31.
Google Launches Site to Crowdsource Debate Questions
Fox News and Google are co-presenting the next GOP presidential debate taking place on September 22. Google's site, FOXNews/Google Debate, is collecting text and video questions from users to be asked during the debate. Users can also scroll though submitted questions and vote on ones they find most relevant.
Social Decision Releases Stats on the Republican Field
Just listening to the media, it's hard to tell which Republican candidates are at the front of the field. Social Decision, a news and analytics site, has put together a study with numbers from Klout and Real Clear Politics. The study shows Rick Perry owns the majority of Twitter mentions, with 30.66%. Michele Bachmann was best able to convert her tweets into action at the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, while Newt Gingrich had the lowest poll numbers compared to his number of social media followers.