Michelle Obama’s first day on Twitter was marked by four tweets (two presumably written by the First Lady herself), a retweet and more than 235,000 new followers.
For her part, Obama followed five accounts, including her husband’s, three official White House Twitter accounts and the account of Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina. The account is being maintained by Obama’s reelection campaign, with tweets posted by the First Lady signed “-mo.”
Some media speculation suggested the account was released to detract attention from the release of Jodi Kantor’s new book “The Obamas,” parts of which Michelle Obama said inaccurately portray her. MSNBC went as far as suggesting that Michelle Obama on Twitter was ” another weapon” in the Obama’s reelection “arsenal.”
If this is a weapon, the Democrats may be in trouble. While it certainly can’t hurt, tweets about the MLK Day of Service and health care initatives backed by the First Lady certainly don’t seem like a death blow to the GOP. Most of the activity on the account’s first day was from well-wishers welcoming her to Twitter, including a message from President Obama.
“It’s not every day we get to welcome the First Lady of the United States to Twitter — happy to have you,” the first tweet from President Obama’s account said this morning.
The President’s account is also managed by his campaign staff, and his wife has some catching up to do: @BarackObama has 11.9 million followers.
