TWITTER, TWITTER, POLITICOS THAT YOU ARE

(it’s still just….sound bites….from afar)

The President’s re-cent foray into the world of social media twittering was an interesting exercise at political self-promotion. To what extent such a use of today’s communicating technology will work for him in 2012 remains to be seen.

Interesting as it was to see, it was a rather stilted performance, the main problem being the double filter restraints that were imposed. First, by the Twitter folks who established certain criteria for allowing a twit’s question to be posted. Second, by the system’s constraints limiting things to 140 characters.

Another aspect of that exercise which didn’t resonate too well was that such a method of conducting a so-called town hall type engagement didn’t have the President facing any reviewers when “responding” to those filtered tweets. For most of it he was only in profile looking at the Twitter guy whenever he responded to one of those tweets. I don’t know about anyone else, but I prefer eye-ball-to eye-ball contact whenever questioning any career politico….about anything….because, as the old saying goes, you can tell a politico is lying when his lips are moving, so, straight on, direct eye contact might help offset that.

I suppose this is a generational perspective. The direct give-and-take of a verbal exchange about an issue or subject is much more satisfying and conducive to serious thought. I suspect, however, this was a calculated ploy to woo the younger minds of today, by showing how technologically up-to-date things are in Obama City.

Fair enough. But it seems to me a greater impression, and a more connecting method could be made using video/podcasting, combined with a call-in facility, where registered voters could call in with specific questions about issues of concern, and see how our President acted with his answers. We’d all get a clearer view of his manner and mindset about how to handle such issues. That would be much closer to the real thing, than this kind of virtual “town hall” gimmick.

Meanwile, that just leaves us with the thought….twitter, twitter, politicos that you are…it’s still just….sound bites….from afar.

CENTURION