I guess that I’m just not a Twitter person. I don’t have an account, and I hardly ever look at anyone else’s tweets. It’s kind of like Buffalo wings — lots of skin, sauce, bone and grease, but no meat. (Yes, I am a vegetarian, but I had some wings in the years prior to my conversion back in the mid-80s). <\/p>\n
But I thought I’d give it a try here, just for the heck of it. Let’s see what I might say in a tweet about Jeb Bush:<\/p>\n
WSJ sez Jeb is hanging out on Wall Street looking for cash. And probably finding some, probably finding a LOT. Just viewed some videos on Jeb and his lovely Mexican wife Columba. Smart, calm dude, friendly, no twangy accent. Looks like the Bush family is going to pull off the first presidential hat trick.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OK, that’s 310 characters — about twice the Twitter limit. I gather that I should have broken that up into three tweets — one about Jeb raising money from investors; a second one about his wife and his character. And a third one about his future prospects. But I can’t do it!!! I think there’s a synergy in considering all three thoughts at once, in juxtapositioning them. With Twitter, you certainly get spontaneity, but you definitely forsake synergy. In this case, given three separate Tweets, you wouldn’t see WHY I conclude that Jeb has a serious chance of going all the way in 2016 — first, his quiet fundraising efforts show that he’s “got the fire” and wants in; his calm and intelligent demeanor give him a gravitas lacking in both his father and his brother (and in Rand Paul, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, and just about all his other rivals); and finally, his wife is going to be an asset in countering the Democratic advantage with Hispanic populations. You’d know that I’m taking Jeb very seriously by my final Tweet; but you wouldn’t know why I feel that way.<\/p>\n
And regarding the presidential family “hat trick”, I wouldn’t have the space in Twitter to explain why I’m disregarding FDR’s distant family relations<\/a> to 10 presidents other than Teddy (who was his 5th cousin), 6 of those by marriage. Why am I disregarding his distant connections to Washington, the Adams’, the Harrisons, Grant and Taft? Oh come on, most everyone is related to some famous figure from the past, at some point. Teddy was at least at FDR’s wedding; I doubt if FDR would have had much conduct with any of the others. <\/p>\n