Facebook will have another first under its belt tonight.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, will take to Facebook to respond to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address. Wilson is scheduled to give his live address on his Facebook page at 10:30 - approximately 30 minutes after Obama wraps up the State of the Union speech.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is slated to deliver the official Republican response to Obama's speech.
As of 1:30 p.m. EDT today, 78 people had signed up to "possibly" log on to watch Wilson's Facebook address tonight.
According to Wilson's Facebook page, a recorded video of his speech will later be posted to his YouTube page.
Wilson gained national fame last September when he yelled out " You lie! " during an Obama speech om health care in the U.S. Capitol. Wilson later apologized for his outburst, saying his emotions got the best of him.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have been getting quite a bit of political attention lately.
Last week, Obama sent his first tweet during a visit to the American Red Cross headquarters in Washington D.C.
The presidential tweet didn't even go up on Obama's own account, http://twitter.com/barackobama , but rather on American Red Cross' @redcross page .
After making good use of sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter during his presidential campaign, Obama has created an image of a tech-savvy president by establishing a presence on multiple social networking sites.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld . Follow Sharon on Twitter at @sgaudin , send e-mail to sgaudin@computerworld.com or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed .
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