Obama, Romney aides preview general election fight in Twitter duel
The two men are unlikely to mix it up in earnest for weeks. But the core argument in a potential Mitt Romney-Barack Obama general election matchup played out one tweet at a time in a virtual clash between their advisors Monday.
David Axelrod, senior campaign advisor for the Democratic president, and Eric Fehrnstrom, a top aide for the front-running Republican, exchanged a series of arguments on the economy for the better part of three hours in what was something of an undercard battle before another televised Republican candidates debate.
It all started with this Romney Twitter message: “More Americans have lost their jobs under @BarackObama than any president in modern history.”
Axelrod, aka @davidaxelrod, responded by linking to a chart that showed the long-term employment trend, starting with the accelerating losses in the final months of the George W. Bush administration. “A picture’s worth a thousand misleading words. This chart tells the story,” Axelrod said.
Fehrnstrom, aka @EricFehrn, then joined the fight.
“Sometimes you don’t need a picture to tell a story. The numbers speak for themselves - 1.7 million jobs lost under Obama.”
It’s been said this will be the first “Twitter election.” But it’s unclear yet whether the 140-character tweet will supersede a 30-second TV ad.
Still, the Axelrod-Fehrnstrom battle shows how the platform may factor into the long election fight ahead.
For those who weren’t following, here’s the blow-by-blow recap:
@MittRomney: More Americans have lost their jobs under @BarackObama than any president in modern history. ObamaIsntWorking.com@davidaxelrod: @MittRomney A picture’s worth a thousand misleading words. This chart tells the story. https://bit.ly/z4V0Us@EricFehrn: @davidaxelrod Sometimes you don’t need a picture to tell a story. The numbers speak for themselves - 1.7 million jobs lost under Obama.@davidaxelrod: @EricFehrn How is it that Mitt has nothing to say in the six months BEFORE Obama took office, when U.S. was losing nearly 4m jobs?@EricFehrn: @davidaxelrod Really? Romney campaigned against Obama on the basis he was unprepared for the challenge ahead, like Joe Biden warned.@davidaxelrod: @EricFehrn Nearly 4m jobs lost in six months before Obama took office. Yet Mitt said policies of that admin had “shored up our economy.”@EricFehrn: @davidaxelrod Obama is poised to be first president in history to end term with a net job loss. That is a fact. Can’t keep blaming Bush.@davidaxelrod: @EricFehrn Not blame. Just asking why Mitt was mute as we lost 4m jobs in last 6 mos of last admin; now wants to go back to same policies?@davidaxelrod: @EricFehrn And why Mitt said Bush policies had “shored up the nation’s economy.” Does he still believe that? Or just another change of mind?@EricFehrn: @davidaxelrod Why does Obama blame everyone but himself? If he were kicker on NFL team and missed a field goal, would he blame the wind?@davidaxelrod: @EricFehrn Dude, none of my business, but shouldn’t you be in debate prep instead of trying to explain yourself to me?@EricFehrn: @davidaxelrod Haha! Believe it or not, the economy is an issue where we don’t prep Mitt, he preps us.
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