

Barack Obama is spamming the hell out of Twitter  - jasonmcalacanis
http://launch.is/blog/barack-obama-spamming-the-hell-out-of-twitter.html

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shakes
I personally find this a more effective use of his twitter account than
general meaningless PR. He's trying to initiate social action, I get that it
can be annoying if you don't care. But if you don't care, you probably
shouldn't be following Barack Obama.

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hugh3
It seems counterproductive. Surely the number of people getting pissed off and
unfollowing the account would be quite large compared to the amount of good it
would actually do.

I guess the world is still learning the answers to questions like "How many
times a day _can_ you tweet before you piss people off?"

Oh, just one other thing:

 _He's trying to initiate social action_

Well no, the political posturing is what's important here, not the question of
whether some random jerk leaves a message at some random congressman's office.
The point of the campaign is to try to claim credit when the eventual
compromise comes through (or else to be able to blame Republicans for refusing
to "compromise" when the negotiations fall through). As always in politics,
what you're _seen_ to be doing is far more important than what you're doing.

And remember that in politican speak, "We want a bipartisan compromise" always
means "We want the other party to vote for our bill".

~~~
shakes
Maybe I'm a bit too naive, but I think that if it was just about claiming
credit for the compromise he could do that whether or not he takes his case to
twitter.

~~~
hugh3
He could do it without it, yes, but in the PR game every little bit helps.

The twitter thing creates a full-blown narrative with a media-friendly hook
(the media will publish any BS involving the word "twitter" at the moment) and
the conclusion "Barack Obama saves the day".

Look, the whole thing is, at this point, an _incredibly_ complicated political
dance, and I've lost track of exactly who is dry-humping whom. But it's far
beyond the point where you can take anything that anybody says at face value.

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_pius
This isn't spam.

