Twittering and Politics

I'm an avid Twitterer. I've been using it both professionally and personally for quite some time now, and find it useful--and productive--on both accounts. I recently learned that many of the current Presidential candidates are Twittering as well (or at least someone on their staff is). Oddly enough the majority of the candidates are running on the Democratic ticket, at least this is what I've discovered in some minor research (if you know of a central location that lists all the candidates who Twitter please feel free to pass it along to me). One individual who stands out as a rather active Twitterer is Senator Hillary Clinton. You can view her profile here. John Edwards has a profile as well but he hasn't posted any updates in quite some time.

Now, what's interesting about this observation to me is that I really have to question why the Republican candidates haven't embraced this medium. Particularly as someone who is not only young but is also extremely active in social media and technology. That doesn't leave a good impression with me. I believe an application like Twitter is certainly something that should be integrated into campaign packages, if the campaign managers were smart. I'll be interested in watching this as the elections get closer.