All the way back in the summer of 2011, the Office of the Vice-President registered an official Twitter account, @VP. After some initial excitement, it became clear that this truly was about the office, not the man himself. But now, it’s a new year, and a new general-election campaign season, and so the Great Joe Biden Twitter Experiment has been restarted. This time around, the handle is the more personal @JoeBiden, and promises to be at least slightly more personality-driven — it already features a photo of the vice-president fooling around with a watergun. Although the Obama 2012 campaign has made it clear that this is run by staffers, the man himself will occasionally drop by to type in a tweet, signing those clearly with a “—Joe.” So what’s Biden been up to since the last time the White House decided to put him on Twitter? Lots!
1. “The Giants [are] on their way to the Super Bowl!” — Biden in January addressing a crowd in San Francisco, home of the baseball Giants and football 49ers.
2. “Road Island” — A February press release issued by the vice-president (or, rather, the same communications staff manning his Twitter feed).
3. “Thank you, Dr. Pepper.” — Biden in March, thanking Dr. Theresa Paper, Scott Community College President.
4. “You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan.” — Biden, in March, on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
5. “I never had an interest in being a mayor ‘cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.” — Biden at an early April Democratic fund-raiser in Chicago with former Mayor Richard Daley.
The problem? Biden’s gaffes remain terribly succinct, clocking in well below 140 characters. Even, but for the last one, below the 136 characters that the “—Joe” signoff requires. (And surely Biden would get into creative abbreviations.) Just wait, too, until Biden discovers the @reply function. Surely he won’t let Chuck Grassley or Roger Stone be the most id-driven elderly tweeter in Washington.
Previously: Ten Reasons Why It’s a Bad Idea to Put Joe Biden on Twitter
