Althouse: "President Barack Obama takes debt battle to Twitter, loses more than 40,000 followers in one day."

July 30, 2011

"President Barack Obama takes debt battle to Twitter, loses more than 40,000 followers in one day."

Obama spammed us.

32 comments:

hoyden said...: Mmmm...Spam! It's not just for breakfast.; 7/30/11, 6:38 AM
Triangle Man said...: A 0.4% decline in followers? Not as bad as the drop in his approval rating.; 7/30/11, 6:41 AM
Mick said...: This is the question that should be Tweeted:

If the purpose of the natural born Citizen requirement was to prevent foreign influence into the Oval Office (FACT), then how is it possible that Obama, admittedly born British, is a natural born Citizen, eligible to be POTUS?; 7/30/11, 7:07 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Get a clue, Mick. That's way over 140 characters.; 7/30/11, 7:08 AM
Robert Cook said...: Why the fuck does anyone follow Twitter, or participate themselves in generating tweets?!; 7/30/11, 7:08 AM
Lincolntf said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/30/11, 7:12 AM
Robert Cook said...: Mick Jagger continues his conceptual art project.

Keep at it Mick; one day they might be discussing you along with that guy who tied himself to another person with a rope for a year, and about whom a monograph was recently published.; 7/30/11, 7:13 AM
Lincolntf said...: Same reason people go to blogs, Cookie. Don't be bitter just because you've been left behind.; 7/30/11, 7:13 AM
Mick said...: Ann Althouse said...

"Get a clue, Mick. That's way over 140 characters".

Oops, not up to date on that "Twitter" thing. How about this.

"Born a Brit, of British subject father? If prevention of foreign influence was the purpose of A2S1C5, then how are you a natural born Citizen?"

Can YOU answer the question? No one else here can.; 7/30/11, 7:25 AM
Mick said...: Robert Cook said...

" Mick Jagger continues his conceptual art project.

Keep at it Mick; one day they might be discussing you along with that guy who tied himself to another person with a rope for a year, and about whom a monograph was recently published."

Can you answer the question? Probably not.; 7/30/11, 7:26 AM
Brian Brown said...: Obama is awesome!; 7/30/11, 7:36 AM
Mick said...: Ann Althouse said...
"Get a clue, Mick. That's way over 140 characters".

Do you think the founders were OK w/ anyone born British (except for themselves, since they fought the Revolution), becoming President?

Is it OK if the son of Kim Jong Il marries an American woman, impregnates her, and the birth of their child in America makes that child eligible for POTUS?; 7/30/11, 7:36 AM
Anonymous said...: Not necessarily a big deal. It's a small percentage of his total. Also, since the White House Twitter is new, lots of people signed up for the novelty or other fairly insignificant reason and now find they don't want Democratic talking points in their twitter feed. As it develops, some people will drop out no matter the direction it takes.; 7/30/11, 7:36 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: Robert Cook: Why the fuck does anyone follow Twitter, or participate themselves in generating tweets?!

You don't follow Twitter, you follow individual people on Twitter. It's similar to reading certain blogs, and not others, or watching certain movies and not others.; 7/30/11, 9:06 AM
Jason (the commenter) said...: It sounds like Obama only had 40,000 real followers.; 7/30/11, 9:07 AM
Steve Austin said...: Jen Lada, Milwaukee area sportscaster babe tossed out a tweet last Monday about how great Obama looked after his prime time campaign speech on the debt talks.

I'm not sure if her follower number took a dive, but I am guessing she quickly learned her following consists primarily of right leaning male sports fans.; 7/30/11, 9:15 AM
Synova said...: I think that Obama treats the people like his minions, what with the Tweet thing and his first forays with Organize for America.

My husband thinks it's like one parent telling the kids to go make his arguments to the other parent so he can get his way.

0.4% is less than a drop in the bucket but some bright bulb pointed out that his lost followers are still more than the TOTAL JOBS CREATED last quarter, or some such.

Put it in perspective.; 7/30/11, 9:43 AM
Issob Morocco said...: Obama Spammed Us.

That will be the mantra for the next 15 months.

In more ways than one so far and he is capable of more destruction.

He will be a historical figure of failure, a man on which so many others pinned their hopes and dreams, shed their own guilt, blinded by feel good emotions in 2008.

Now we as a country are like waking up the morning after an all night party, we are seeing the cigarette burns in the carpet, the beers sloshed on the furniture, the general destruction of our lives. The man who guaranteed so many so much has left town figuratively, hiding behind the office and its perks, incapable of being a chief executive.

It was so much easier when you could just act like one but not have to be responsible and accountable.

Cheers!; 7/30/11, 10:20 AM
Robert Cook said...: "You don't follow Twitter, you follow individual people on Twitter."

Jason, thanks, I've got that...I just don't understand why thousands of people would follow anyone issuing what are essentially text messages.; 7/30/11, 10:31 AM
edutcher said...: And we hit the Spam button.; 7/30/11, 10:44 AM
Known Unknown said...: Jason, thanks, I've got that...I just don't understand why thousands of people would follow anyone issuing what are essentially text messages

A lot of them contain links to interesting things. I see it as a news aggregator from people or organizations I trust.

You can also create lists to separate out interests or to categorize whom you follow (ex: entertainment, politics, sports, etc.)

It's proven to me to be somewhat valuable in the fields I work in (advertising, entertainment.); 7/30/11, 10:45 AM
Chip S. said...: RCook--Twitter would have been a natural medium for La Rochefoucauld, Oscar Wilde, and Dorothy Parker, among many.

Try following iowahawkblog, the wingnuts' Voltaire. If your head doesn't explode, you'll have a few laughs.; 7/30/11, 11:01 AM
n.n said...: Ah, spam. Takes me back to the old days under communist rule.

Involuntary redistributive change schemes, especially internationally, are harmful to both deluded supporters and to marginalized opponents.

I wonder when America will finally have a proper debate on the issues of merit, including our global commitments.; 7/30/11, 11:59 AM
Almost Ali said...: "Tweeting" is not for everyone since the 140-character format forces the tweeter to get to the point, coherently.

"Following" offers advantages, especially when following your ideological enemies; their tweets allow you to read their minds, and in turn launch effective counter-strikes.

"Following" can also be a great news aggregator, offering a regular stream of condensed updates - especially useful regarding breaking news and real-time events.

In a nutshell, Twitter (tweeting) is a wildfire always waiting to happen - via "RT" (Re-Tweet[ing]). You receive a tweet that you (and others) like, you simply re-tweet to your followers - and before you know it it's all over the world. And long before anyone has fired up their blog or updated their website - which by comparison are behemoths of hardened molasses.; 7/30/11, 12:58 PM
Penny said...: So are there Twitter aggregators or "topic of the day" counters?

Meta Twitter data sites might be a good way to spend some time.

Otherwise, I'm pretty much with Cook on this, and wearing my age on my sleeve.; 7/30/11, 1:27 PM
Chip S. said...: Old enough to remember when blogging was a fad?; 7/30/11, 1:30 PM
Penny said...: I will leave you with this thought about Presidential tweets.

Spam and leadership are opposite sides of the same President's coin.

How much is the coin worth? Depends. When flipped, did it come up more often heads or more often tails?; 7/30/11, 1:35 PM
Joanna said...: it's like one parent telling the kids to go make his arguments to the other parent so he can get his way.

I love ^this^, Synova.

Personally, I reported Obama to Twitter for spamming. Heh.

Here's a great pic of the King of Spamalot (from Michelle Malkin).; 7/30/11, 2:16 PM
Jim said...: Obama only lost 40,000 followers.

To put that in perspective, it is more people than found jobs last month.; 7/30/11, 5:29 PM
Mary Beth said...: If he really wants a compromise, why only tell people to contact their Republican reps? One tweet that said to call representatives and tell them to work it out would have been sufficient.

I signed up for a Twitter account in 2008 but didn't really begin using it until recently. It's been both entertaining and helpful to me.; 7/30/11, 6:04 PM
Paul said...: One day the word "Obama' will come to mean a looser of gargantuan proportions in the dictionaries.

That are to 'Obama' is to "speak and let them know you are dumb".; 7/30/11, 8:32 PM
Anonymous said...: Twitter is a great place to go for twitter followers I just bought some twitter followers or buy twitter followers from www.buytwitterbuddies.com; 5/23/12, 3:32 AM