Hugh Pickens writes "Brandon Rittiman reports that White House superintendence launched a Twitter operation Tuesday to put load on diet to reach a deal extending the payroll-tax cut. Using the Twitter hashtag #40dollars, the White House successfully got thousands of people to respond and explain what a $40 cut to each paycheck would mean to them personally. By Wednesday morning, the #40dollars hashtag started 'trending,' which is what happens when Twitter's algorithms see a topic abruptly surge. It's not easy to create that kind of surge, but the White House has 2.5 million Twitter followers to call upon. Macon Phillips, the President's administrator officer of Digital Strategy, says his team has managed to get a few Twitter topics to rise to the level of 'trending' before — most notably when they began tweeting about the death of Osama bin Laden. 'What's very striking about a social-media drive like this is that regular people are making the point about how this would affect them. It's not us here in command trying to argue on their behalf.' says Phillips. 'The #40dollars fight puts a face on that amount to demonstrate the payroll tax cut's real-world impact on middle-class families.'"

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