Vice President Joe Biden hits the campaign trail on Twitter

Vice President Joe Biden on Monday formally hit the campaign trail on Twitter, launching a new account (@JoeBiden) for what are sure to be regular attacks on the Republican candidate. It's maintained by President Barack Obama's campaign staff; tweets will be signed "Joe" when he sends them himself.

The account kicked off with the inaugural message: "We're excited to announce that @JoeBiden is being rebooted for the 2012 campaign season to give you news of the Vice President on the trail."

"Campaign staff will run this account to keep you up to date on what the VP's up to, but you'll see occasional tweets from Joe himself, too," Biden's ghost-tweeter wrote in the second message. Biden already had an official account, @VP.

A few hours later, Obama's campaign Twitter account (@BarackObama) invited its nearly 14 million followers to take notice: "Hello, Joe: @JoeBiden is new on Twitter today, with the latest from the Vice President on the campaign trail."

Biden's new feed drew a cutting response from the deputy communications director at the Republican National Committee, Tim Miller (@Timodc), who retweeted Obama's message but added "Watch your feed @NeilKinnock"—a reference to a September 1987 incident in which Biden, then running for president, was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Kinnock, leader of the British Labour Party.

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