Welcome to the 21st century President Clinton!
The chief executive who guided America on to the Information Superhighway revealed he didn’t have a Twitter page — until comedian Stephen Colbert got a handle on this low-tech travesty.
Amazingly, Clinton said he was too shy and insecure to start his own Twitter page.
“What if you tweet and nobody tweets back?” Clinton said in an interview taped over the weekend and aired last night on Colbert’s Comedy Central show.
Clinton then mixed his social media metaphors: “There’s nothing worse than a friend-less tweeter, you’re just wandering around in cyberspace.”
Colbert then whipped out his smartphone and told Clinton he had taken the liberty of making a Twitter page for the former president.
“Now ‘PresidentClinton’ was taken. ‘WilliamJeffersonClinton’ was taken,” Colbert said.
“But ‘PrezBillyJeff‘ was available.”
“Would you like to break into the 21st century now and send your first tweet?” Colbert added.
A laughing and mildly embarrassed Clinton took the bait, and dictated his first tweet under the @PrezBillyJeff handle.
“Just spent amazing time with Colbert! Is he sane? He is cool! #cgiu”
Colbert told the president: “Sir welcome to the future.”
Earlier in the interview, Clinton reminded Colbert that he took office in January 1993, before e-mail and the Worldwide Web became a part of everyday life.
Colbert, as if he were speaking to his turn-of-the-20th-century great grandfather, asked in mocking amazement: “How did you communicate?”
“Telephone, snail mail, blah, blah,” Clinton said.
The @PrezBillyJeff page had more than 50,000 followers by noon today. It was following just one page, Colbert’s @StephenAtHome and still had just that one tweet.
Clinton said he is an avid texter, sending messages to his family and chief of staff.