Saad Hariri Should Consider a Meaner Twitter Personna

Yesterday, this exchange between our ex-PM and and a twitter “hater” made the round on facebook, accompanied by the usual tsk.tsk.tsks directed at our ex-PM:

Mr. Hariri’s response was mediocre as a put-down. It betrayed anger and awkwardly tried to squeeze in an “I’m rising above the fray” sentiment towards the end.

Critics focused on the fact that Mr. Hariri responded in the first place. That he almost stooped to a level of bickering in his responses to Assy. Supporters retorted that to the contrary, the tweets show that Mr. Hariri is a real person, unlike other politicians (a.k.a Mr. Mikati) who let sleek PR firms do the tweeting for them.

Here’s my suggestion to Mr. Hariri: You’re mad at someone on twitter? Let him have it! Go all the way! What kind of rubbish is “have a nice day?” You can learn a lot from Haifa Wehbe, the queen of twitter put-downs (put-downs which only gain her more admiration) and incidentally one of the few Lebanese people who have more twitter influence than you do.

Think of it. What do you have to lose? Do you really think Jean Assy will ever start liking you because you told him to have a nice day?

It’s not that I am especially fond of arrogance. It’s because if I had to choose between two evils in a political leader, I’d go with arrogant confidence any day over hesitant babbling and faux-niceness. You’re a young, supposedly fiery politician. You’re not yet old enough to play “father of the nation”. So either give your supporters red meat and candy or let the PR firms do the tweeting..