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Read the Tweets That Politicians Deleted

Politwoops keeps a stash of those hasty deletions

By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 3, 2012 5:26 PM CDT

(Newser) – Note to tweeting politicians: Watch what you post, because Politwoops will remember it forever. The transparency-minded website is safeguarding politicians' deleted tweets, enabling the rest of us to giggle or ponder over them at our leisure, The Atlantic reports. The site's current 6-month stash includes a few doozey deletions, including John McCain mocking Vladimir Putin's tears and Rep. Jeff Miller posting a link to a poll that asked, "Was Obama born in the United States?"

A few deletions are more odd than obvious, begging us to ask what politicians were thinking. Why, for example, did Rep. Tom Graves remove a tweet about going out one night with his wife? Or Rep. Kathy Hochul delete one about her visit to a cancer institute? Perhaps Rep. Stephen Fincher's tweet comparing The Bachelor to The Hunger Games is a more obvious case, but the online avenues of a politician's mind can be dimly lit indeed.

A tweet that John McCain rather hastily deleted.
A tweet that John McCain rather hastily deleted.   (Politwoops)
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COMMENTS
Showing 2 of 3 comments
pg13
Jun 4, 2012 8:15 AM CDT
If someone from your office is doing your tweeting for you, tweets will get retracted on occasion.  I imagine the Congresswoman deleted the tweet about visiting the cancer ward because she didn't want it to look like self-promotion, she was doing something to be nice, not for her campaign.
YetAnotherCollegeKid
Jun 4, 2012 2:29 AM CDT
I've written things in the past that I have wanted to or even have deleted. Most of it was innocuous. So a guy decided that he didn't want to mention a night out with his wife; I don't know the exact reasoning, but I can certainly relate to removing something like that on a whim. The cancer center thing is admittedly a bit weirder. That seems like a bit of easy political capital, right there.
 

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