US politicos turn to Twitter in midst of debt debate

With Democrats and Republicans locked in a tense showdown over the US debt, both sides have taken to social network Twitter in a bid to score points in 140 characters or less.

Since talks began, leading the Democrats, President Barack Obama’s communications team and their Republican counterparts on House Speaker John Boehner’s staff have scrambled to get out their message the traditional way — in print, on talk radio and in televised addresses.

With time running out for a deal to raise the US debt ceiling by a 2 August deadline, however, all parties have rushed to post soundbite-friendly updates on Twitter — pushing for, or warning against, the various deals being proffered to avoid a potentially disastrous default.

After Obama and Boehner made live back-to-back primetime speeches to the nation, Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director, kept up the pressure on Twitter — giving his 140 characters summary of both speeches:

Both sides have also actively engaged the White House and Congressional press corps.

Time Magazine’s White House correspondent Michael Scherer noted that Obama’s press secretary Jay Carney had invoked the word “compromise” 49 times during Tuesday’s press briefing.

Pfeiffer quickly jumped in, with commentary.

Brendan Buck, Press Secretary for Boehner, then retweeted the earlier messages with his own additions.

Buck remarked that White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, in comments to the CNBC network, “refuses to say the President would veto the House’s two-step plan”.

He had earlier asked: “Do Senior Advisors sign bills or does the President”.

Both Buck and Pfeiffer have sought to use the retweet option to respond to reporters’ questions, and used the function to advance their arguments.

The White House communications chief touted an article linked by Huffington Post reporter Sam Stein.

Buck, meanwhile, gave a hat tip to Politico reporter Jonathan Allen for pointing out that the US Chamber of Commerce, an influential group which champions corporate interests, supported Boehner’s proposal.

However spirited the exchanges may have been, with 16 000 followers to Buck’s 1 500 — and a Klout score of 69 to Buck’s 51 — Pfeiffer has the louder voice in the Twittersphere.

The rush for the new media stage was not lost on some commentators.

“If the deficit-debt ceiling issue could be resolved by press releases and partisan Tweets, we’d have a surplus by now”, Politico White House correspondent Glenn Thrush observed. — AFP with additional reporting by Staff Reporter