Say what? Obama and others mistweet during VP debate

by

As Joe Biden and Paul Ryan spat fire at one another during the Thursday night's vice presidential debate, the online community buzzed with commentary, tweeting quotes, praise, and criticism of the candidates' performances. President Barack Obama's Twitter feed was particularly busy, feverishly posting Democratic debate points under the label #TeamJoe. 

As Politwoops–a Sunlight Foundation tool that captures politicians' deleted tweets–proves, not even the president is absolved of error. In the social media frenzy, Obama's team misquoted his number two, taking a statement intended to support the middle class and turning it into one championing the rich. Here is the tweet: 

Republican Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell also deleted a flurry of derisive retweets commenting on Biden's demeanor. Among the five tweets was one that stated: "RT @EmilyMiller: Biden laughing when he disagrees with Ryan is so annoying. Like a child in time out." Each of these tweets was deleted within a minute of being posted, but thanks to Politwoops, Parnell didn't get away with it completely.

Sen. John Cornyn, R- Texas, also had to erase a mistweet during the debate, after he accidentally retweeted a post by University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato that said: "You have to admit, Biden is on fire." Anyone who knows Cornyn, who chairs the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, would have been shocked to see the tweet complimenting Biden. However, Cornyn came back with a smooth recovery, retweeting Sabato's praise of Biden with a sarcastic preface:  "Burn, baby, burn."

Considering last night's round of mishaps, Politwoops is worth monitoring during Tuesday's presidential debate.