Archive for the ‘Twitter’ Category

On Sunday, in an interview with the editorial board of the Marietta Daily Journal, GOP presidential candidate and former House speaker Newt Gingrich cited his heavy presence in social media as proof that a media elite has unfairly tarred his candidacy as spurious:

Gingrich referred to a news article that did an analysis of Twitter followers.

“And it says, ‘now it’s true that Gingrich has 1.3 million followers and (Michele) Bachmann only has 59,000, but she’s getting more new people every week.’ It turned out I have six times as many Twitter followers as all the other candidates combined, but it didn’t count because if it counted I’d still be a candidate; since I can’t be a candidate that can’t count. So we’ve been a little bit like a sailing ship in the middle of a hurricane in which we are sailing straight into the teeth of the media, and that slowed us down.”

But this afternoon, gawker.com is suggesting that many of Gingrich’s Twitter followers may be manufactured. The …

Continue reading Newt Gingrich’s 1.3 million Twitter followers – are they for real? »

A Tweet came in this morning, pointing recipients to two weekend pieces concerning former Gov. Roy Barnes, the big dog in a Democratic primary now only 15 days away.

One was this article from the AJC’s James Salzer:

Former Gov. Roy Barnes travels the state slamming special-interest tax breaks and saying they need to be eliminated to fund education.

But for Barnes, the front-runner among Democrats in this year’s governor’s race, that’s a big change of heart.

While serving in the General Assembly, Barnes voted for more than two-dozen sales tax exemptions, according to a review of legislative records.

He supported exemptions for everything from the sale of solar panels and crab bait to aircraft parts and Girl Scout cookies. As governor from 1999 to 2003, he signed at least 13 more exemptions that are still in effect.

The other was this Larry Peterson piece in the Savannah Morning News:

Gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes’ promises could cost more than $2 billion a year, but …

Continue reading The RGA looks in on a Roy Barnes candidacy »

From somewhere in Europe, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich is defending himself, 140 characters at a time.

The former Georgia congressman created a ruckus from afar on Wednesday with a Twitter-produced message to his followers, calling U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor a “racist.” He said she should withdraw.

But just a few minutes ago, Gingrich tapped this out on his PDA:

A bizarre xomplaint on the left is that I tweeted about a federal judge from auschwitz showing disrespect. it is simply false.

The accusation showed up on DailyKos this morning:

This has to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen from a senior figure in the GOP. According to Newt Gingrich’s Twitter Timeline, the former Speaker of the House is using Twitter to push GOP talking points about Sonia Sotomayor being a “racist” while he is visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial–where millions of people were killed and imprisoned as a result of real racism.

Gingrich …

Continue reading More ‘tweets’ from Newt Gingrich: ‘I wasn’t in Auschwitz when I called Sotomayor a racist’ »