Dave Robertson is a Curators’ Teaching Professor of Political Science at UMSL and an expert on national politics. He recently weighed in on KMOX about politicians and social media. (Photo by August Jennewein)

University of Missouri–St. Louis political scientist Dave Robertson has some simple advice for politicians that might seem obvious, and yet many don’t heed it. 

“For heaven’s sake, don’t put stuff on social media that you don’t want to live forever!” said Robertson, Curators’ Teaching Professor of Political Science at UMSL. “If you want to say something, wait at least 12 hours before you say it.”

He offered the suggestion during a recent KMOX (1120 AM) story about how social media and politics can lead to potential disaster. The story stems from the recent sexting scandal that has damaged the campaign of New York City mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner.

Robertson added that politicians aren’t alone in creating problems for themselves via social media.

“Sports figures, for example, have made plenty of mistakes and so have celebrities,” he told KMOX News. “It’s a real opportunity to mess up – badly – and to show a terrible side to people.”

Robertson is an expert on national politics and policy, political history, political economy, environmental policy and labor. He has weighed in on political matters for news media outlets throughout the world, including the BBC, Associated Press, The New York Times, NPR, NBC’s “Nightly News” and C-SPAN. He is the political analyst for the St. Louis NBC affiliate, KSDK (Channel 5).