Obama's Big Text: Savvy Maneuver or Costly Backfire?
Unfortunately, other major news outlets and political blogs beat him to the punch by more than two hours.
At around one in the morning, news outlet websites like Politico and the Los Angeles Times sent out messages of Obama's VP choice. While some Obama supporters may have received the messages at around the same time, simply looking at the time stamp on either would reveal the simple fact that the Obama campaign promise had been broken.
This was no intentional or deliberate pledge-breaking. According to AP reports, Obama's campaign got scooped. CNN broke the news at around twelve in the morning, hours before the Obama text message even started circulating, thanks to some pretty diligent stake-outs and general snooping. Media outlets were not ashamed to confess to scoping out the VP potentials, noting every change of environment that might suggest what secrets would be revealed.
The biggest changes came at Senator Biden's residence. Several slight changes, such as a police presence and rumors of calls between Biden and Obama, hinted at what many already suspected. The presence of the Secret Service became the icing on the cake, confirming Biden as Obama's VP pick.
But among the "I told you so"s and "I saw it coming"s of early this morning were also a few questions aimed in the direction of Senator Obama: "What happened?" Many Obama supporters felt gypped; some even felt used. The announcement that those who signed up for the email and text message would be the first to know Obama's VP choice garnered Obama an even larger database of telephone numbers and emails. Some feel that the promise might have been more of a "ploy" to enable the Obama campaign to send support-seeking messages to more people.
Yet the fact is that the campaign tried. Anyone with any technological knowledge knows it's impossible to send out thousands of emails or text messages at once. That means that no matter what, everyone wasn't going to get the message at the same time. And no text messaging system was going to beat the diligence of the media who made it virtually impossible for anyone to know the VP choice before them. The fact of the matter remains that while the Obama campaign didn't live up to a big promise, it had every intention to.
Senator Obama now has an unforeseen challenge ahead of him. To those supporters who feel at the least disappointed, at the worst betrayed, Senator Obama and his campaign may have some work to do to. To those who already are working to show Obama as incapable, the campaign has just potentially opened a new door to possible "evidence" of an unreliable candidate. But the first obligation really lies with Obama supporters, supporters Obama will not want to lose over a slow internet connection.
Resources
CNN News Coverage
John Dunbar, "Best-laid Plans: Media Beats Obama to the Punch", Associated Press
Anne E. Kornblut and Ed O'Keefe, "Tale of the Obama Text Message", WashingtonPost.com
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- Obama's campaign promised supporters would be the first to know his VP pick.
- The media broke the news long before supporters received their texts and/or emails.
- Many Obama supporters are disappointed; some even feel betrayed.
1 Comments
Post a CommentExactly what I feared upon hearing of the promise to text. Hopefully the Senator and next President of the US of A will learn that Americans bless those who keep their promises.