Twitter, I think, will eventually change the way candidates and organizations disseminate information.
But we’ve got a long way to go. Case in point, I just received this quote from the NRSC on Beau Biden’s decision not to run for senate. Read it, and then I will comment on the problems with it:
“Clearly, Beau Biden’s decision not to run for the United States Senate represents a major recruiting setback for national Democrats, who have been counting on his candidacy to keep the Vice President’s former seat in Democrat control. As we saw in Massachusetts last week, voters clearly stated that these seats belong to the people – not to either political party or dynasty. Voters want independent-minded leaders who will put their interests first and not simply serve as a rubberstamp for the out-of-control spending and big government agenda that we’ve witnessed in Washington under the Democrats’ control. Congressman Mike Castle has a proven record of independence and bipartisanship that puts him in a strong position to win this seat in November.” – Colin Reed, NRSC Spokesman
This, of course, is a fine statement. But what if you’re on your iPhone and you would like to Re-Tweet some of this???
You could try to copy and paste the first sentence — “Clearly, Beau Biden’s decision not to run for the United States Senate represents a major recruiting setback for national Democrats, who have been counting on his candidacy to keep the Vice President’s former seat in Democrat control” — but that clearly won’t make the 140 character cut.
You could try to paraphrase or abbreviate it, but then you risk being accused of misquoting or taking the statement out of context.
But what if instead of sending out this press release, the NRSC also emailed around the following “Twitter-approved” quotes to journalists (hopefully, these are all 140 characters, or less…)
- “Beau Biden’s decision not to run for the senate represents a major setback for Dems” – Colin Reed, NRSC
- “As we saw in MA last week, voters want leaders who won’t ‘rubberstamp’ the Dems big spending policies” – Colin Reed, NRSC
- Rep. Mike Castle has a proven record of independence that puts him in a strong position to win the DE seat in Nov.” – Colin Reed, NRSC
… Now, maybe I’m weird. Maybe I’m the only person who would be more inclined to Tweet something out if it was made easy. But I doubt it.
