While the mainstream press focused on the health care battle last week, the online conversation centered on sobering survey results for President Obama. Bloggers also jumped into the racially charged “Skip” Gates case. Iran was again the hot Twitter topic and a confrontation between David Beckham and angry soccer fans led on YouTube.

With the political battle over health care legislation intensifying in Washington, that subject generated its highest level of coverage, by far, last week. But a remark by the president at the end of his health care press conference quickly changed the news agenda.

Bloggers expressed strong opinions on two topics last week—President Obama and Tropicana orange juice. Evaluations of Obama broke down on ideological grounds while the uproar over Tropicana’s change in packaging was about brand loyalty.

As the White House moved on a number of economic fronts last week, the financial meltdown and Obama’s big speech accounted for nearly half the news agenda. And the media distilled an unmistakable message about the direction of the new administration.

It wasn’t much of a honeymoon, at least so far. And nowhere did the discussion of the economic crisis and the new Administration seem to beat up the President more roundly than in the studios of cable talk shows and, of course, on the radio.

Bloggers and the mainstream media alike focused intently on one storyline last week. In its maiden edition, PEJ’s “New Media Index” examines the most discussed news on blogs, user news sites, and other social media and compares it to the mainstream media.

Barack Obama’s official transition to power swamped the news last week. And even that may understate the extent to which he commandeered the agenda, with an early edict on Gitmo and a full-court press on a stimulus package.