PEJ Campaign Coverage Index: November 10 - 16, 2008, The Post-Election Narrative: A Tale of Two Women

Barack Obama may have toured his new home with President Bush, but much of last week's media coverage also focused on two women who ran losing campaigns for the Executive Branch. With Hillary Clinton, the speculation was whether she would become the top diplomat in the new Obama Administration. With Sarah Palin, the question was whether she would emerge as the top Republican.

By the end of the week, Palin and Clinton were the second and third-leading newsmakers of the week from Nov. 10-16, trailing only the President elect.

With the financial crisis certain to be topic No. 1 for President Obama, the country's weakened economy rivaled the Presidential transition as the top story of the week, with nothing else coming close. That was driven in part by a change in the Bush administration's bailout strategy that seemed to suggest an even grimmer economic prognosis, and Congress arguing over a controversial bailout for the failing auto industry.

These are among the findings of the first full post-election week of the News Coverage Index for Nov. 10-16, a weekly study of the media agenda from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Read the full report The Post-Election Narrative: A Tale of Two Women on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.