Today Vice-President Joe Biden joined Twitter. Obviously, his tweets will be vetted and pored over by a vigilant communications staff. But remember, his live comments before, during, and after the carefully controlled Barack Obama presidential campaign were supposed to be, too. So let’s take a brief walk down memory lane. Here are ten reasons why Biden tweeting is a bad idea:
1. “John’s last-minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: JOBS” —Biden on McCain’s economic policies in 2008
2. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” —Biden to the New York Observer in 2007
3. “A man I’m proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next president of the United States — Barack America!” —Biden introducing his running mate in 2008
4. “You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.” —Biden discussing Delaware’s Indian-American community to CSPAN in 2006
5. “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice-president of the United States of America. Quite frankly, it might have been a better pick than me.” —Biden defending the future Secretary of State during a campaign stop in New Hampshire in late 2008
6. “I’m told Chuck Graham, state senator, is here. Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see you. Oh, God love you. What am I talking about?” —Biden, hailing a local legislator who is a paraplegic
7. “If you don’t remember anything else I said: Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” —Biden predicting an international disaster in 2008
8. “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed.” —Biden, forgetting that FDR wasn’t president during the stock market crash of 1929 (and that pretty much nobody had a TV back then) as he speaks with Katie Couric in 2008
9. “We’re not supporting clean coal.” —Biden during the 2008 campaign, forgetting that he and Obama did, in fact, support clean coal
10. “This is a big fucking deal.” —Biden, to Obama, in front of a microphone, as the president announces the passage of the Affordable Care Act
What do all of those gaffes have in common? They were all made using under 140 characters.
