After the success of current US President Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential elections, partially prompted by his campaign's use of internet tools in order to reach voters, politicians (and those in charge of public relations within their campaigns) around the world wish to emulate it. One month ago, GVO's Veronica Khokhlova wrote about how the President of Ukraine and other prominent politicians started to use the Twitter microblogging service. Well, a few weeks later, after a lot [es] of coverage [es] in the Colombian mainstream media about Twitter, at least two presidential pre-candidates for the 2010 election have opened their accounts. Even though there was an account for current Colombian president Álvaro Uribe @alvarouribe [es] (which clearly stated it was a “humouristic microblog” and not an “official” account), after journalist Andrés Cavelier published an article [es] about Twitter at the economical daily Portafolio, President Uribe's press secretary asked Twitter administrators to delete that account. Of course, after initial [es] skepticism [es] from Colombian twitterers, it seems both @German_Vargas [es] and @rafaelpardo [es]‘s accounts are legitimate [es]. These accounts belong to Germán Vargas Lleras (47, from centre-right Radical Change party) and Rafael Pardo Rueda [es] (55, from Colombian Liberal Party). Here are some of the first reactions when Mr. Vargas Lleras (or people inside his campaign) launched his Twitter account (@mrmuller seems to be among the first ones to notice it [es]. Camilo @hyperconectado: Siguiendo a @German_Vargas, para decirle que me da miedo cuando habla @leidymarmalade: Mañana @german_vargas descubrirá sus 6 primeros amigos con avatar Mauricio Duque A. @enmediodelruido: eso de que @german_vargas ande indicando sus movimientos no debe tener contentos a los de su seguridad. Ahora va para el aeropuerto Having chicken soup for lunch in Villeta When reading @German_Vargas tweets, it is easy to notice that he answers the What are you doing? question in a literal way. He (or a campaign staffer) really tweets what he is doing: where he is going, what town or city he is visiting, who is interviewing him, and (what some twitterers best notice) what he eats or drinks. Some Colombian twitterers have started a “contest” or “bet” to see who will be the first to get a reply from him (some actually try by asking him serious questions, though). Of course, some twitterers voice their dissatisfaction: @leidymarmalade: Yo sinceramente creo que @german_vargas es re n00b y no sabe hacer replies @irenarco: ahora German_Vargas le añade al GPS de su campaña (que no es interesante, insisto) la info gastronómica. ¿y las ideas? @Patton: yo creo que es que @German_Vargas no se ha dado cuenta que no solo se escribe sino que también se puede leer. #hayqueleer @abadiavernaza: Quien escribe el Twitter de @german_vargas es una vieja que le carga los papeles, y como nosotros, no tiene ni put* idea de nada Days later, @rafaelpardo appeared. Though, as Juglar del Zipa [es] states (see below), at first he was pretty much doing the same “mundane” things that his rival was doing, later he started to ask some technical questions [es] and to voice some of his thoughts, such as this one about the release of two imprisoned FARC guerrillas to become “promoters of peace”: @rafaelpardo: pienso que la liberacion de los dos de las farc es inexplicable, inconveniente e ilegal. Que hay detras? that is the question Some twitterers react to Mr Pardo's debut and draw comparisons with his rival (and with Obama): Alana Farrah @allyfar: Parece que @rafaelpardo sí se pilló que la cosa es decir qué estás pensando Mauricio Duque A. @enmediodelruido: @rafaelpardo pregunta cosas como un ser vivo, no como @german_vargas que parece un robot Andrés Meza-Escallón @apoloduvalis: think @German_Vargas and @rafaelpardo are doing lifestreaming (what I'm DOING) instead of the more interesting mindstreaming (what I THINK) AM Amaya Villarreal @AMAV: pues sr. asistente de @German_Vargas: lamento que tenga que hacer un trabajo tan rídiculo, emulación de tres [pesos] de lo que hizo Obama. Juglar del Zipa [es] summarizes and writes about the Colombian e-candidates’ arrival to Twitter (some of the ideas written lines above come from this post): ¿Acaso no saben que Twitter puede ser mucho más que responder qué estás haciendo? ¿No saben que por medio de Twitter uno puede establecer relaciones próximas con gente o conocer la textura de las opiniones más allá de las simples encuestas? ¿No saben qué es lo que se ha dado por llamar dospuntocero? ¿Algún día se le medirían a un blips&candidates? ¿Realmente serían capaces de sostener un debate, de dialogar? Claro que no.