• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, June 10, 2016

As declarations of war go, it was nice and concise: after President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton as his successor, causing Republican frontrunner Donald Trump to bring forth the standard snarky takedown on Twitter (“Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama – but nobody else does!) Clinton’s campaign hit back at the Donald with some blunt advice: “Delete your account.”

A common riposte in social media feuds, “Delete your account” is a perfect comeback because it pithily combines a brutal takedown with what I can only describe as a sardonic sense of pity, as if the original comment was so embarrassingly off base that they’re genuinely concerned about the reputational damage the other person is causing himself.

On that note, NSA leaker turned talking head Edward Snowden deployed the three obliterating words after Jeb Bush tweeted a photo of a gun with his name on it with the cryptic caption “America.” The response is almost like a desperate plea: no, really, just stop, because you clearly have no idea how bad this looks. 

Needless to say, like everything on social media the insult is a bit of a gamble: Trump is a ferocious combatant online as elsewhere, and his supporters (or people who just don’t like Clinton, of which there are, of course, plenty) were quick to note that she might not want to throw the word “delete” around, considering her own ongoing email scandal.

But it’s probably a fair assumption that all of this ammunition will get fired sooner or later anyway – it’s not like Trump, having bequeathed the nickname “Crooked Hillary” on his opponent, is going to hold back – and now that Clinton has locked up the Democratic nomination, we can pretty much expect both candidates to hurl the kitchen sink at each other on a daily basis.

That seems to be the message behind Clinton’s tweet, giving it a sort of “shot heard round the world” vibe. The ugliest game on earth is afoot: prepare for lots of kitchen sinks whizzing overhead.