Romney, Obama Campaign Advisors Engage in Twitter Spat

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Another epic Twitter battle is brewing between Mitt Romney’s senior advisor Eric Fehrnstrom and President Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, who have spent hours trading insults about the state of the economy, one calling the other “dude” and calling into question Romney’s debate prep regimen.

It started a few hours ago, when Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) tweeted a link to a chart that showed the rate of job creation under President Bush and President Obama, to which Fehrnstrom (@EricFehrn) responded on Twitter, “Sometimes you don’t need a picture to tell a story. The numbers speak for themselves — 1.7 million jobs lost under Obama.”

Axelrod shot write back writing, “How is it that Mitt has nothing to say in the six months BEFORE Obama took office, when U.S. was losing nearly 4m jobs?”

“Really?” wrote Fehrnstrom. “Romney campaigned against Obama on the basis he was unprepared for the challenge ahead, like Joe Biden warned.”

Fehrnstrom wrote: “Obama is poised to be first president in history to end term with a net job loss. That is a fact. Can’t keep blaming Bush.”

“Not blame, said Axelrod. “Just asking why Mitt was mute as we lost 4m jobs in last 6 mos of last admin; now wants to go back to same policies? And why Mitt said Bush policies had ‘shored up the nation’s economy.’ Does he still believe that? Or just another change of mind?”

And then the conversation gets even more interesting, as the two senior advisors use Twitter to needle each other even further.

“Why does Obama blame everyone but himself? If he were kicker on NFL team and missed a field goal, would he blame the wind?” Fehrnstrom quipped.

“Dude, none of my business, but shouldn’t you be in debate prep instead of trying to explain yourself to me?” asked Axelrod.

“Haha! Believe it or not, the economy is an issue where we don’t prep Mitt, he preps us,” said Fehrnstrom.

It seems that for now, Fehrnstrom got the last word. A twitter user who identifies himself as a Bay Area native pounced on Axelrod, tweeting, “way too old to be saying ‘dude.’”

But Axelrod had a response to that, too.

“That’s the great thing about Twitter. You’re never too old!” he wrote.