Rep. Michele Bachmann participated in a presidential debate that made history Wednesday — the first one conducted entirely on Twitter.
But the jury's still out on how history ultimately will view the 140-character-at-a-time debate.
There wasn't much of any debating between the candidates, and 40 minutes went by from the scheduled start time before any questions were asked due to a delayed start and technical issues when candidates tweeted their opening statements.
Problems aside, six presidential candidates—Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson and Thaddeus McCotter — answered questions at the debate, sponsored by theteaparty.net. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty did not participate.
The candidates got five general questions from moderator S.E. Cupp, a conservative commentator. Then they each got one individual question from a Twitter user.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the 140-character answers limited responses to mostly talking points.
Bachmann said that she would repeal "Obamacare," would not have gone into Libya, and that the government does not create jobs.
Her Twitter-user question was why people weren't talking about Americans who do not pay income tax. "I am," she responded. "Simple. Fair. Flat. Everyone should pay something."
.@140townhall I am. Simple. Fair. Flat. Everyone should pay something.less than a minute ago via Tweet Button Favorite Retweet ReplyMichele Bachmann
TeamBachmann
One interesting feature was that the Tea Party website sponsoring the debate tabulated stats on the six candidates' virtual bounce. Bachmann had the most new followers (634) and Twitter mentions (1,238), while Herman Cain had the most retweets (1,211).
