From an RV driving around rural Iowa, Tim Pawlenty delivered a speech on his plan for job creation and growing the economy on Tuesday, 140 characters at a time.
The presidential candidate and former Minnesota governor delivered the ‘TweetNote’ address for the American Jobs Conference on Twitter Tuesday, tweeting out a speech that mapped out the economic plan he introduced earlier this year.
He renewed his call to grow the economy by 5 percent, reduce the business tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, and “[level] the playing field by rolling back corporate subsidies, special handouts, carve outs & loopholes.” He proposed a balanced budget amendment, a tax code with “just two individual rates: 10% and 25%,” reducing regulation, and repealing ObamaCare.
The Conference brought together job seekers, employers, members of the business community, and experts to discuss finding a job and all aspect of the search for employment. Participants tweeted under the hashtag #Jobs4US, asking questions of the speaker and responding to his comments.
Following the TweetNote, there will be several panels on topics such as personal branding, how to use technology in the job search, “Job Searching for Interns and Recent Grads,” and networking.
“Gov. Pawlenty has the most specific jobs and economic growth plan in the race, and this is a good opportunity to tweet about it. We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to talk about his record and ideas,” explained spokesperson Alex Conant. (PPP to drop Pawlenty from some state-level polling due to poor performance nationally)
After the address, Pawlenty answered questions posted by a moderator.
For Democrats, the event provided a forum to attack the former governor on his record in Minnesota and his economic policies.
The Iowa Democratic Party was one of the more vocal critics. “We certainly hope @TimPawlenty plans to create more #Jobs4USthan he did as governor … (A mere 6,200),” the party tweeted.
“[N]o one knows more about debt than Tim Pawlenty who left his state with a $6.2b budget hole #jobs4US,” tweeted press secretary Megan Jacobs.
Iowa Democrats also hit Pawlenty on raising property taxes during his time as governor.
The criticisms echoed around twitter, as they were repeated and retweeted by the others, including DNC Communications Director Brad Woodhouse, Minnesota Democratic Farm and Labor Party Communications Director Kristin Sosanie, both of whom were part of the Democrats’ response.