Many Republicans believe that President Obama gets a free pass from the media — so it stands to reason he might get special treatment from social media too.

At least, that seems to have been the thinking when Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary for George W. Bush and CNN contributor, saw this tweet from the President's healthcare discussion Tuesday:

"Not only are premiums lower than they were, they're lower than the most optimistic predictions." —President Obama on Obamacare #CGI2013 — Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 24, 2013

Fleischer counted the characters in that tweet, and fired off this protest to Twitter's Government and Politics team:

Question to @gov: how come @BarackObama 's last tweet was more than 140 characters? Does he play by different rules??? — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 24, 2013

Which left many Twitter users scratching their heads, as there were only 136 characters in Obama's tweet. Half an hour later came Fleischer's sheepish explanation:

@gov I retract my tweet. When I copy and pasted, it included the @BarackObama. — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) September 24, 2013

By then, of course, it was too late. Fleischer's original tweet, which remains undeleted, had become a Twitter meme:

@AriFleischer bro do u even math — Steve Streza (@SteveStreza) September 24, 2013

hey @gov i was told that @BarackObama doesn't have to click thru to instagram pics to see them that seems super unfair cc @AriFleischer — Alex Pareene (@pareene) September 24, 2013

@AriFleischer Maybe @BarackObama had John Yoo write a Twitter memo making it legal to exceed 140 characters. — Joe Khalaf (@JoeKhalaf) September 25, 2013

Which brings us to the age-old question: should Twitter ever relax or abandon its 140-character limit? Give us your take in the comments.

Image: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP