Former Reagan/Clinton advisor David Gergen called the first night of the Democratic National Convention “a great night” for the Democrats. First Lady Michelle Obama’s headlining speech has been roundly praised and immediately sparked an explosion of activity on social media.

Twitter reports that the buzz during the speech nearly doubled the activity around Mitt Romney’s speech last week accepting the Republican Party’s nomination for President:

First Lady Michelle Obama’s (@MichelleObama) primetime speech peaked at 28,003 Tweets per minute (TPM) at its conclusion — nearly double Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s (@MittRomney) 14,289 peak. One line in her speech this evening — “we’ve got so much more to do” — saw 22,004 TPM.

The night also featured speeches by actor/former White House staffer Kal Penn, congressional candidate Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) and a keynote by Mayor Julian Castro (D-San Antonio) that all seem to be going viral.

Even conservative commentators are praising the speech and asking if the president will be able to match his wife’s performance. As far as the Republican Convention goes, their nominee was outperformed by a man and an empty chair. “20% of those who watched the Republican convention cited Clint Eastwood’s speech as the convention highlight, compared to just 17% for Mitt.”

On television, the first night of the Democratic convention drew 1.4 million more viewers than the first night of the Republican convention when Mitt Romney’s wife Ann and Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) headlined. Interestingly, viewership at Fox News was way down compared to the RNC as MSNBC and NBC dominated the night.