Twitter makes it easy to delete tweets, creating an #undo for the that old politician’s malady: #footinmouthdisease.
But a website has now largely taken away pols’ ability to smooth over foul ups. Politwoops automatically posts tweets that were published and subsequently deleted by U.S. politicians.
Sadly, the vast majority of the tweets are non-controversial. Most tweets are deleted simply because of typos and broken links.
But occasionally gems appear.
These tweets can simply be bizarre, as when President Barack Obama tweeted “@GFuller44 #ThingsChrisHassDidAsAChild.”
A lot of the “fun” of the site is often trying to figure out why politicians were concerned enough to delete a tweet.
Kevin McCarthy, House Majority Whip, retweeted @ChelsiePaulson tweeting: “You know you’re a huge nerd when you get excited about your monthly Google Account Activitiy Report.” But a day later, McCarthy apparently thought better of it and deleted the tweet.
Was he concerned about losing the nerd vote?
Others’ tweets were deleted after a politician’s twitter account had been hacked.
“Dear Iowans, vote against ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA, because this man, Chuck Grassley, wants YOUR internet censored and all of that BS,” Tweeted the account of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley.
Of course, the site wouldn’t be complete without Newt Gingrich gaffes.
“I will not celebrate 8.3% unemployment. We need bold leadership & @bararkobama is not up to the task. Join us!”
Apparently, it took The presidential hopeful 2 hours to notice that he’d misspelled the name of the actual president.
The website is produced by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that has created a number of online tools aimed at creating transparency in government.
Politwoops gives readers some interesting features, such as the timestamp of each tweet as well as how long it took for the politician to delete it. The site even allows users to interact with the deleted tweets as if they still existed—there’s “reply” and “retweet” options adjacent to each.
Go ahead and show us your favorite deleted tweets in the comments below.
Photo by Inubleachanimefan
