Back in April 2007 I made the "Case for a Twittering Presidential candidate."

While it was pointed out to me quickly on that post by a fellow TechPresident colleague that John Edwards had been Twittering for a while, Barack Obama responded directly through Twitter to me that they had started "Twittering a little." The point: Democrats were quick to jump in the Twitterverse. Real quick.

Today, @Daltonsbriefs alerted me that the McCain campaign had officially jumped in to Twitter with @JohnMcCain.

I emailed the campaign but have yet to hear an official response. However, McCain supporter AliAkbar says it's official so I decided to dig further. Curious about the timing of the official launch of @JohnMcCain, I followed up with Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, and asked if they had launched the account to help balance their Twitter Election Hub.

Biz's response to my hunch: "That's correct—we got in touch directly with the McCain team and helped them set up their Twitter account in advance of launching our special election page so both candidates would be represented fairly."

So, the McCain campaign is "on" Twitter, but not really. Let's dig in...

Currently, the only tweets from @JohnMcCain are RSS items from the "McCain Report" blog at JohnMcCain.com.

The "McCain Report" is authored by Michael Goldfarb which leads me to believe he had a hand in setting up the Twitter account. [I've emailed Goldfarb a few questions about the account that I'll post if he responds.]

While I'll give a thumbs up noting the McCain campaign has finally joined Twitter, they have a tremendous challenge ahead of them (if the goal is to rival Obama's following) and they're not taking the correct steps to catch up as quickly as possible. But, it's not too late to try.

Let's take a closer look at the opposition: @BarackObama.

Using Twitter Grader, we find out that Barack is not only good at Twitter -- he's one of the best. In fact, he scores a 100% and is ranked #15 out of 36,024 "graded Twitterers." Let's take a closer look at the stats for @BarackObama:
* Following: 93,171
* Followers: 89,634
* Updates: 212

I do follow Barack Obama but I'm not a big fan of his updates. Like everything coming from Barack's online machine these days, it's very programmatic and impersonal. All updates are sent via "the web" (as opposed to being sent sometimes from a mobile client if it were really Barack) and they all have a similar format: "Barack is here. Click here to watch him live."

B-O-R-I-N-G tweets to me but still I can see how these little updates add value to his supporters who may want to see Barack campaigning on the trail rather than someone like me who wants to know what he's having for lunch.

To me, authenticity matters most, and this is another example of Barack running an unauthentic online campaign. This is the opening that John McCain's campaign could use to catch up.

Looking at John McCain's recently-launched profile in Twitter Grader, we actually find that though he's just launched the profile, it isn't doing too bad.

@JohnMcCain's Twitter Grade is 98.6% and is ranked #505 out of 36,024 "graded Twitterers." Let's take a closer look at the stats for @JohnMcCain:
* Following: 1,726
* Followers: 1,740
* Updates: 8

[Aside: You're probably just as confused as I am at how @JohnMcCain's profile receives such a high grade from Twitter Grader given these relatively low stats. I've Tweeted the developer to find out methodology and will report back if I get a response.]

Two Quick Ways John McCain Could Catch Up To Barack On Twitter

1. The easiest thing to do: Be more authentic than Barack Obama (an opening I've pointed out).

Hopefully by now John McCain is strapped with an iPhone, BlackBerry, or at the very least (let's hope!), a cell phone. That means he could participate from the trail -- even the Straight-Talk Express which is probably outfitted with WiFi.

Therefore John McCain could check in from the campaign trail periodically and have a very real, honest, and authentic conversation with those of us that are proud to follow him.

2. Another simple idea would be to launch a Twitter microsite based off of the #McCain hashtag similar to a project we recently launched for #pork, PorkParade. By doing so, John McCain's campaign could create a place for those of us on Twitter to discuss the good work he's doing to put Country First and broadcast that to our networks.

We've developed a way to ban griefers and create a leaderboard for top Twitterers -- important ingredients for the success of the effort. Without a doubt the folks on his web team can figure it out just as we did.

CONCLUSION

Taking these few simple, commonsensical steps to use Twitter effectively would help John McCain gain followers at a tremendous clip and possibly even catch up to Barack. In my book, that's a smart use of technology and the candidate's time.

But would it make a difference?

I passed around the John McCain Twitter profile to some of my Republican friends via email. One of them, an ardent McCain supporter and someone who would be considered a "senior Republican campaign operative" responded: "Well, [John McCain] needs some sort of momentum changer. Let's see if Twitter helps."

Indeed.