My Fellow Tweeps

I keep wondering what the new President would say — or type with his thumbs — if his Inaugural Address were limited to one Tweet.

On Twitter, a cross between instant messaging and blogging, every message is limited to 160 characters.

That's it. Communicate while counting down with every keystroke (including spaces): 160, 159, 158…

160 and no more.

(At 349 characters, the above message is already more than two Tweets.)

"My Fellow Americans?" (142 characters left)
I've been thinking a lot about public speaking and Twitter these days.

So, I recently tweeted, asking the question: "What if the Inaugural Address were only a single Tweet?"

Some of my Twitter friends suggested:

(christineburns) "It's a tweet to be your President."

(Jim1Coe) "My fellow Americans, now is the time to reach across the street and ask how you may help your neighbor, your retailer, your US."

(nheltman) "This is our chance to make a difference. We either work together or fail."

Here's my entry:

(artieisaac) "I said, 'Yes we can.' You replied, 'Yes, we did.' In boom times we can squabble. But now, my fellow Americans: 'Yes, we must.'"

(Only 128 characters? It's going to be cold, Mr. President. Keep it short and, er, tweet.)

Do you tweet? It's great exercise for your inner headline (and haiku) writer.