Obama and Romney fans wage Twitter war

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As Barack Obama and Mitt Romney made a final dash Sunday for the coveted US presidency less than 48 hours ahead of election day, their supporters took to Twitter to wage a strident online war of words.

Using the hashtags #WhyImNotVotingForObama and #WhyImNotVotingForRomney netizens took to the social network to make last-ditch — sometimes rabid — arguments for their preferred candidate.

“#WhyImNotVotingForObama Because Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods, and Brian Terry all won’t be able to vote!” @TheNewJenn said.

She was referring to the four killed in Libya’s Benghazi city on September 11 and to Terry, a US border patrol agent shot dead in December 2010 near Mexico.

Both incidents caused controversy in the United States, and President Barack Obama has come under fire over the Benghazi attack during the campaign, with Republicans questioning if there were enough US military personnel in the city.

“#WhyImNotVotingForRomney I don’t want to vote for a person that’s primary business is outsourcing jobs to China and India,” @KarandeepDizzle countered on her account.

China has emerged as a key issue in the campaign, and Obama has accused his rival of investing in companies that were pioneers in outsourcing US jobs to the Asian powerhouse when he headed private equity firm Bain Capital.

Another netizen touched on abortion, which Romney opposes in instances that do not involve rape, incest or a threat to a mother’s life.

“#WhyImNotVotingForRomney Because no man should tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her own body,” @EcheMadubuike said — a comment retweeted 1,700 times.

The anti-Romney hashtag was the top US trending topic on Twitter late afternoon, while #WhyImNotVotingForObama had been one of the most talked about issues earlier in the day, according to the TweetTrendings website.

But sentiment towards the candidates changed from city to city.

In Dallas-Fort Worth in the solid Republican state of Texas, for instance, the anti-Obama hashtag trended, while #WhyImNotVotingForRomney was trending in more liberal San Francisco.

[Image via Agence France-Presse]