If the Obama administration’s stance on gun control is so widely popular, why would they need to astroturf Republicans in Congress with fake Twitter messages about it?

The Hill:

A Texas Republican on Monday said President Obama’s gun control campaign is a fraud based on fake messages over Twitter. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) accused Obama of trying to make support for his position look stronger than it really is by flooding Twitter with messages from people who don’t exist… Stockman said that in response to Obama’s call for people to tweet their congressman in support of gun control legislation, he received just 16 tweets. But he said all of these messages were identical, and that a closer look at them revealed that only six were from real people. “The other 10 are fake, computer-generated spambots,” his office said in a press release. As evidence, he said these 10 tweets use default graphics and names, and have not engaged in any interaction with other people. Two of the tweets were sent at nearly the same time, and both follow just one person: Brad Schenck, Obama’s former digital strategist.

That’s quite an accusation. Where’s the evidence?

Courtesy of NRO, here’s one such alleged spambot:

.@stevestockmanus I’m 1 of the 92 percent of Americans who support universal background checks. #WeDemandAVote — Vera Awah (@vsega2002) February 23, 2013

That’s the only tweet “Vera” has sent. Here’s “her” Twitter profile:

And here’s “Vera’s” single, solitary follower:

You can see the same thing with Twitter accounts from “Deborah Lee” and “Gennady Lomako”: one or two tweets with the #WeDemandAVote hashtag, and one follower, Mr. Schenck.

Yep. They’re fakes.

Schenck describes himself as a “former digital strategist at #Obama2012 and @ObamaInaugural.” He also doesn’t seem to think anybody knows how Twitter works. Or maybe he just doesn’t know how Twitter works. Either way, it’s pretty clumsy work for a “digital strategist.”

These guys think you’re stupid, America. But then, they’ve got some pretty strong evidence to back them up. You reelected them.

P.S. Speaking of their opinion of your intelligence, Jay Carney wants you to believe Organizing for Action is completely independent of the White House, and he doesn’t know anything about OFA selling access to Obama. Then he runs away. Guess he needs more time to figure out how to explain why, among other things, OFA runs Obama’s verified Twitter account.

P.P.S. Another victory for Obama’s digital strategists.