In the lost perspectives department, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer confirmed to New York Times reporter Brain Stelter late Sunday that the White House believes the Tweeting public helped push Congress toward a debt ceiling agreement.
The conversation, which also occurred via Twitter, was first reported by Mashable.com
The White House asked President Obama's Twitter followers to Tweet their congressmen on Friday as part of a campaign to pressure House Republicans to agree to a deal to raise the limit on federal borrowing.
Friday's post did not carry the "--BO" tag indicating it was written by the president himself.
It's worth repeating the results of a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which found that only 2 percent of adult Americans used Twitter to engage in politics -- at least as of the 2010 midterm campaigns -- and that only 8 percent of adult American Internet users are on the social media site at all.
A rush of Tweets can be a siren song for some elected officials who mistake it for the actual voice of their constituency. Whether the White House is right or wrong in its assertion, it's a bad sign when the mania reaches either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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