Meet Lorraine from the Presidential Debate -- Or Was It Lorena?
Oct. 17, 2012 — -- The most tweeted about moment from last night's Presidential debate had nothing to do with Libya, gun control, or taxes, according to Twitter's own calculations. Rather, the moment that caused the most conversation, with nearly 110,000 tweets per minute, was a question about immigration and the candidates' confusion about the name of person who asked it.
Candy Crowley, the debate's moderator, introduced a 24-year old hairdresser from Long Island, New York as Lorraine Osorio. "Candy said it perfectly," Osorio told ABC/Univision, "I don't know what happened there."
This is how it went:
ROMNEY: Is it Loraina?
OSORIO: Lorraine.
ROMNEY: Lorraine?
OSORIO: Yes, Lorraine.
ROMNEY: Lorraine.
OSORIO: How you doing?
ROMNEY: Good, thanks.
Then, Osorio got her chance to pose a question that hadn't yet been addressed in the presidential debates : "Mr. Romney, what do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive members of society?" she asked.
Before Gov. Mitt Romney could answer, he had one last question: "Thank you. Lorraine? Did I get that right?" Later in the debate, President Barack Obama also bungled her name, before correcting himself.
"Lorranna -- Lorraine -- we are a nation of immigrants," he said.
For the record, It's Lorraine. The young woman, whose name caused so much confusion and Twitter activity, says that she hasn't given that part of the evening much thought.
"I really don't care," Osorio said. "As long as they heard my question -- that's fine with me."
Picked at random by Gallup on behalf of the Commission of Presidential Debates, the young Latina born to El Salvadorean parents, says she was "extremely nervous" before asking her immigration question.
"I was up all night, wondering, what do I ask, what do I ask, what do I ask. And I came up with a couple of good questions to ask. But immigration is a really big part of our community," Osorio said. Eventually a colleague helped her word the question. "I know it's a very sensitive subject, [but whether] Obama remains in office, or if Romney is in office, we need to know what's going to happen. It's a question that's never going to go away."
Osorio said she thought that both parties answered her question well, but that, "actions speak louder than words," and that Obama's deferred action policy demonstrates his commitment to helping those young immigrants who want to help themselves. Still, Osorio says she won't make her decision about how to cast her vote until all of the debates are over.
Not that that is stopping people from asking her off line and online. So, far she's received calls from a handful of media outlets, gotten more than 80 new Facebook friend requests overnight, and added a whole lot of new Instagram followers.
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