When was the last time you heard somebody say, “Oh my God, did you see what Gov. David Ige posted on Twitter?”
Probably never, right?
And for the most part, that’s a good thing.
While He Who Shall Not Be Mentioned is Tweeting like a dyspeptic bird that ate too many berries, Ige’s Twitter feed is on the far opposite end of the spectrum.
On Aug. 4, @GovHawaii posted a sunset-and-coconut-trees beach photo with a shaka emoji and the words “Happy Aloha Friday” (plus the hashtag #alohafriday)
On Aug. 6, @GovHawaii posted a photo of smiling kupuna, two emojis of smiling kupuna and the message: New Kupuna Caregivers program “first in nation.”
On Monday of this week @GovHawaii posted a photo of a smiling new schools Superintendent Christina Kishimoto, smiling BOE Chairman Lance Mizumoto and himself — also smiling, sort of — along with a rainbow emoji and a school building emoji and the text “Launching a new era for Hawaii schools.”
It’s all so earnest and cheerful. The little blue Twitter bird actually seems happy on Ige’s feed.
The closest Ige’s Twitter feed gets to a bit of fire is when he has re-tweeted posts that Sen. Mazie Hirono or Sen. Brian Schatz have zinged out, as when Hirono tweeted, “To my GOP colleagues, after I was diagnosed with cancer, you showed me your care. You showed me your compassion. So where is that tonight?” and Ige commented, “Proud of you @maziehirono” and included a heart emoji.
While the governor’s Twitter feed is devoid of outbursts, personal attacks on political foes, snappy comebacks to criticism, or bombshell declarations of new policy, it is also fairly light on forward vision or must-read information. You could skip Ige’s Twitter feed and still be ready for his morning meeting. You could not check it for a few weeks and still be up on what he’s been doing.
There are links to press releases from his office, including a recent story about how the state is on track to cool 1,000 public school classrooms by the end of this month and lots of information about hurricane preparedness.
Similarly, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Twitter feed has lots of timely traffic updates, pictures of the mayor posing with various people and an image of Rocky the seal and her baby, Kaimana. It’s not blistering stuff. It’s more in the category of “positive” and “useful.”
Ige’s Twitter account states “maintained by staff” (what a concept!). Another contrast with the most talked-about Twitter-user in American political office — Ige’s Twitter account has just over 5,000 followers and just under 1,500 likes. For comparison, Schatz has 48,800 followers. Hirono has 62,700.
Since Twitter can now provide a direct line to the stream-of-consciousness of a political leader, Hawaii can take comfort that our governor isn’t playing that game. He isn’t even pretending. That’s not sad, it’s fabulous. Huge, even.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
