Obama’s Twitter plan backfires

“Build it and they will come,” but they may also trash the place, is an accurate axiom for anything online, President Barack Obama is learning.

AttackWatch.com seems to do plenty of attacking itself.

The president, whose campaign launched a website to track and rebuff anti-Obama attacks, encouraged his supporters to take it to the Tweets with an #attackwatch hashtag, but the Twitterverse is comprised of a much more politically diverse, and perhaps cruel, crowd than the last time he ran for office.

The hashtag has been taken over by comedians who seem content to mock and ridicule, says a Wall Street Journal blog.

Those with a conservative bent have been drawn to the hashtag as though it were a tax-and-spend flame:

@Drill_Thrawl Hey Kids, are mommy and daddy talking bad about Obama? Be sure to report them at #attackwatch #1984

@gregmcrc … check this=9% unemployment, no green jobs, 49 million uninsured, 1 in 6 Americans in poverty

#AttackWatch If you want to really upset a megalomaniacal wannabe dictator, just mock him via social media.

@bonnie1b: Jobless claims jump to 448,000 #attackwatch

Jimmy Carter must be feeling good knowing he’s no longer the worst president in U.S. history. #attackwatch

AttackWatch.com is similar to a “Fight The Smears” site Obama unleashed during his 2008 campaign, says The International Business Times, which says the new site has “become a laughingstock.”

Conservative talk show hosts are getting in on the act, including Neal Boortz (aka @talkmaster):

@attackwatch, you can tell me just how much money Obama thinks I should make. Don’t want to exceed his limit, you understand.

I don’t claim to be an expert on politics, but “control the message” has to be a basic tenet of campaigning. Unleashing the #attackwatch hashtag on an embittered public doesn’t seem wise.

I speak from experience, just read the comments below.