Twitter is a celebrity’s best friend when it’s time to clean up a mess. It’s even better if the mess is self made.

Take Kevin Spacey. The gifted actor put his entire foot in his mouth yesterday on NBC’s “Today” by referring to Mitt Romney as a “murderous politician” during a chat about his upcoming Netflix political drama.

Spacey must have felt some Web-related heat from the remark, so he leveraged his Twitter account to try to make amends.

Forgive and forget?

Let’s give Spacey kudos for reacting quickly, but a more straightforward apology sans spin would have been better.

The facts and content are crystal clear, and they don’t support Spacey. The actor mentioned “this year,” which just so happens to be an election year with a GOP candidate trying to unseat a Democratic incumbent.

Do the math.

Spacey was trying to be glib and cool, and he certainly felt comfortable making that statement on the set of an NBC news program.

Follow Christian Toto on Twitter @TotoMovies