Presidential candidate in Twitter interview first

US President Barack Obama has been praised by the technology community for running his campaign last year through social networking sites such as Facebook.   

But his old opponent John McCain has jumped on the web 2.0 train. After joining micro-blogging site Twitter, the Senator has now completed the first interview on the site with talk show host George Stephanopoulos.

McCain’s messages are now followed by almost 225,000 people, and he answered about 10 questions during the interview. Twitter only allows messages to be sent that are under 140 characters each.

When asked, “What worries you more: Pakistan or Iran?” McCain replied “Both. The challenges are different but both significant.”

The move may be an attempt to quash criticisms from political analysts, some of whom claimed McCain’s lack of involvement in social networking helped lead to his defeat at the polls.