The most re-tweeted message in Twitter history was the president’s ‘four more years’ tweet at 4.16 a.m. (GMT) on 7 November 2012. In addition, the most ‘liked’ photograph ever recorded on Facebook was the picture of the re-elected president hugging his wife. So what, you might think? What has this got to do with real politics and the epic problems facing the USA, with an economy still teetering and a government so divided it relentlessly prioritises political point-scoring over promoting the national interest?
In reality, Twitter and Facebook had a lot to do with Obama’s election victory. Had Romney won, his victory tweet would not, it is safe to say, have been re-tweeted over half a million times. And a picture of him hugging his wife? Only the hardcore fans would have felt a warm glow. The romance of Obama’s first victory seems like a lifetime ago now. And politically, it was. The ‘Hope and change’ of 2008 was replaced this time round by the nuts and bolts of fixing a nation still under duress. Gone were the hyperbole and rhetoric of his inaugural campaign.
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