Since the capture of Osama bin Laden two weeks ago, numerous polls have confirmed an increase in Barack Obama's approval rating, including one today from Politico. But perhaps one of the most unforeseen effects of the bin Laden raid on the president's clout can be seen on his Twitter feed: according to the chart above from TwitterCounter, Obama passed Britney Spears with an uptick in followers on the microblogging service on May 2nd, the day after news of the raid broke the night before.

@BarackObama currently has 8,027,548 followers, dusting @britneyspears' still impressive 7,850,628, although it's worth pointing out that he's not number one on the service, at least just yet: Lady Gaga became the first person to 10 million followers over the weekend. Commander-in-chief meet the commander-in-tweets.

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Eli Rosenberg