Someone Finally Let Prez Obama On Twitter

This past spring, so many presidential candidates have come out of the woodwork that the actual president must be feeling a little left out. In fact, on Monday, President Obama made his own Twitter account from the account @POTUS so that, like his wife and VP, the president could tweet from his personal account and not the administration's. Right now, the Prez is active on Twitter under @BarackObama, but that's run by Organizing For Action staff, not Obama himself. (Really, it's right there in the @BarackObama bio: "This account is run by Organizing for Action staff. Tweets from the President are signed -bo.")

Somewhere — well, probably at school in D.C. — Sasha and Malia are cringing. "I'm going to join Twitter," their dad must have announced proudly at Sunday family dinner. "I'm going to manage my own brand. I'm going to be my own man. Michelle, can you pass the gravy, please?"

So, on Monday, Obama presumably got busy making his own Twitter account. "Dad, husband, and 44th President of the United States," reads his brand-new bio. "Tweets may be archived." He's already on top of this whole Twitter thing: @POTUS is already following 65 people at the time of this writing, including dozens of White House higher-ups, his favorite Chicago teams (the White Sox, the Bears, the Blackhawks) and the two Ivy League colleges he attended: Harvard and Columbia.

His first tweet did not play it cool.

So: Why now, Obama? After six and a half years in office, and Twitter being a thing for every one of them, why is he stepping up to the Twitter plate now? I have a few theories.

• He's getting even more nostalgic about Sasha and Malia leaving for college and wants something to do after they're gone.
• He really, really liked that photo of himself grinning like a Cheshire cat and wanted the world to see it.
• He's sick and tired of the spotlight being on Hillary, Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, et al. Did he campaign for years and years and win a re-election just to have that attention stolen away?
• He wants to endorse Hillary or Biden, should Biden run, and doesn't want his words twisted when he says, "Hillary will absolutely be the next best president of the United States" alongside a "praise hands" emoji.
• He wants to start Twitter accounts for Sunny and Bo and thought he'd better get some practice at this Twitter lark before starting an endeavor of that magnitude.
• He wants to tweet at the British royal family, which joined Twitter this year as well. Flying over the pond is long and expensive and he'd quite like to just check in on the rapidly growing family via the Twittersphere.

But I'd put my money on this one:

• He'll be out of the White House for 18 months, and both his children will be at college not long after that. So, just like your dad reacted when all his kids left home and his retirement approached, he's looking for a new lease on life, and he wants to update everyone on it via Twitter. Maybe even with GIFs.

Images: Twitter/POTUS