Republicans Gather (Virtually) for Twitter Debate

7:48 p.m. | Updated A handful of Republican Presidential candidates took to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon and came up with 140-character answers to a wide range of questions during the first debate to be held on Twitter for the 2012 contest.

Sponsored by theteaparty.net on a new platform, 140TownHall.com, the candidates made their opening statements in Twitter-size bites and then answered questions from S.E. Cupp, a conservative commentator, including several inquiries from Twitter users.

While some argue that politicians can avoid tackling tough policy questions when they only have 140 characters to explain their positions, others say the strict limit forcing brevity and eliminates opportunities to obfuscate their messages.

The argument could be made both ways, based on the responses to the first question posed by Ms. Cupp to the five candidates who participated in today’s debate.

“Question 1: As president, how will you avoid continually raising the debt ceiling? @140townhall.”

Newt Gingrich was the first candidate to reply, posting:

Rick Santorum said:

Gary Johnson posted next:

Herman Cain said:

Representative Michele Bachmann of Wisconsin said:

And finally, Representative Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan said:

Mr. McCotter had to finish his response in subsequent posts. Each candidate was able to add up to three posts on Twitter for each question. Some of the questions included how the candidates would go about weighing the cost of fighting the war on terror against the exploding debt crisis.

Another question asked whether the candidates would go into Libya. But much of the focus was on the economy, with a question asking whether it was possible for a President to create jobs without expanding the role of the federal government.

The entire Twitter stream from the debate, from start to finish, can be seen on the 140TownHall.com platform.

The debate was organized by Andrew Hemingway, 29, chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, who is also the founder of Digital-Acumen.com, a consulting firm that specializes in social media and politics. He helped arrange for theteaparty.net to sponsor the event.

Mr. Hemingway, who became involved in politics after his election as the budget chairman in Bristol, N.H., said that Twitter offered an opportunity for both candidates and voters to have a conversation. “We want to continue to move the political dialogue to allow for greater engagement and more transparency with our political candidates,” he said. “We think Twitter can do that.”

He worked closely with Adam Green from Lexington, Mass., who along with his son, Zach, co-founded 140Elect LLC, which produced the platform that was used to present the questions and answers from candidates. Mr. Green, a Twitter developer for the last two years, said the goal is to use the platform for more debates and discussions for candidates from both parties during the upcoming elections.

“What I really enjoyed was when they allowed the candidates to respond freely and then the candidates were all tweeting at the same time,” Mr. Green said. “I would like to find better ways to get the public involved in the debate stream.”

Mr. Green said that he counted 22,400 unique visitors to the 140townhall.com website during the debate, and there were 14,000 tweets that used the @140townhall handle.

Based on an analysis of the Twitter posts, he said that Mr. Cain was the candidate who got the most Retweets – which means his responses to questions during the debate on Twitter were shared the most frequently by Twitter users. Mrs. Bachmann’s Twitter handle, @teambachmann, was mentioned more than that of any other participating candidate.

In the last year, the use of Twitter has skyrocketed among both elected officials and political candidates who took to the platform during the midterm elections to both engage with voters and broadcast updates. On July 6, President Obama responded to questions from Twitter users during what was described as the first Twitter Town Hall at the White House. However, he did not keep his answers to 140 characters. They were streamed live on the Web as part of a joint project with Twitter.

Given the event was sponsored by the Tea Party, it was not surprising that the candidates were also asked: “What role do you think the Tea Party Will Play in the 2012 elections?”

The candidates shared similar views. They all argued that the Tea Party would have a significant impact in the 2012 elections.