e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Obama Twitter Account Gets Aggressive in Debt Battle

July 29th, 2011

Interesting development: @barackobama, which has almost 10 million followers and is run by the President’s re-election campaign, is explicitly asking supporters to Tweet at their Congressmembers. And, they’re naming names and giving addresses:

Tennessee voters: Tweet @SenAlexander and @senbobcorker and ask them to compromise on a balanced deficit solution. (link)

Texas Republican reps on Twitter: @replouiegomert (TX-01), @jodgetedpoe (TX-02), @samspressshop (TX-03), @rephensarling (TX-05). (link)

This may have happened before, but I sure haven’t seen it lately — most of the recent traffic on the Obama feed has focused on campaign events or feel-good moments like the women’s soccer World Cup, not on in-your-face advocacy. The Congressmembers themselves are deeply entrenched in their positions, meaning that even a few thousand Tweets lobbed their way aren’t likely to budge them a bit, but these messages (particularly any from constituents) will be a visible show of support for the President’s position in a public venue. Which, as we’ve discussed before, is an opportunity Democrats have gone out of their way to miss lately.

Welcome to the best game of all, @barackobama — politics.

Update: The NY Daily News is making a big deal out of the fact that Obama’s lost some 40,000 followers since his Twitter feed got aggressive. 40k out of 9.4-ish million? That’s less than one half of one percent — which sounds like small change to me. And if these folks didn’t want to get messages from something that resembles an actual political campaign, what good were they to him anyway?

– cpd

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