Did you get the message?
My cell phone went off this morning at 3:13 am - and chances are, yours did too.
It was a text message from 62262 or O-B-A-M-A. I signed up to get the message, mostly for my job as a journalist, but partially out of my own curiosity about who might get the VP slot.
"3:13 am?!" I thought. "Why would they wait and send this after everyone has gone to sleep?"
But then it made perfect sense.
The Obama campaign knew that they'd never be able to keep their secret from the press, and in fact, they didn't. CNN broke the news at 12:42 am, more than two hours before the text went out, that Biden would be the nominee. Most media outlets were operating on unconfirmed speculation much earlier, after the other potentials VP's had announced they weren't "the one."
Of course, the campaign could have gotten ahead of the media by sending the text out yesterday morning, before the press was able to put all the pieces together. But again, that was the point. They wanted that full day of speculation - and they got it. Every news media outlet from 24-hour cable television to web blogs spent the entire day Thursday and Friday speculating and salivating over who the VP might be. It's the best free publicity they could have asked for - and they calculated the entire production to play out this way.
It would be foolish in my position to tell you what I think of Obama's pick. After all, I'm supposed to be objective. I really don't have a position because I haven't decided who I'm voting for - and I probably won't make up my mind until I'm in the voting booth on November 4th. But I think it's safe to say that while Obama's text message may appear to be a lot of hype for what turned out to be nothing, this is how the Obama people always expected it to be. It may not have been how most people learned about the VP pick, but it succeeded in getting people talking and drumming up free advertising for the campaign.
It was a text message from 62262 or O-B-A-M-A. I signed up to get the message, mostly for my job as a journalist, but partially out of my own curiosity about who might get the VP slot.
"3:13 am?!" I thought. "Why would they wait and send this after everyone has gone to sleep?"
But then it made perfect sense.
The Obama campaign knew that they'd never be able to keep their secret from the press, and in fact, they didn't. CNN broke the news at 12:42 am, more than two hours before the text went out, that Biden would be the nominee. Most media outlets were operating on unconfirmed speculation much earlier, after the other potentials VP's had announced they weren't "the one."
Of course, the campaign could have gotten ahead of the media by sending the text out yesterday morning, before the press was able to put all the pieces together. But again, that was the point. They wanted that full day of speculation - and they got it. Every news media outlet from 24-hour cable television to web blogs spent the entire day Thursday and Friday speculating and salivating over who the VP might be. It's the best free publicity they could have asked for - and they calculated the entire production to play out this way.
It would be foolish in my position to tell you what I think of Obama's pick. After all, I'm supposed to be objective. I really don't have a position because I haven't decided who I'm voting for - and I probably won't make up my mind until I'm in the voting booth on November 4th. But I think it's safe to say that while Obama's text message may appear to be a lot of hype for what turned out to be nothing, this is how the Obama people always expected it to be. It may not have been how most people learned about the VP pick, but it succeeded in getting people talking and drumming up free advertising for the campaign.