Urban Music and Lifestyle Magazine Turns Political

Senator Barack Obama is the first politician to appear on the cover of Vibe magazine. The Vibe Media Group, started by musician Quincy Jones in 1993, is devoted to urban music and lifestyles. This is the first time that a politician has appeared on the cover of Vibe magazine. The special "Juice" issue celebrating Vibe's 14th year anniversary features two different covers. One shows a photo of Obama pointing to his watch, with red letters proclaiming: "It's Obama Time". The other is a typical face shot that shows the Senator looking a bit tired. The headline reads: "Barack Obama & 40 More Who Will Change The World".

According to the Editor-in-Chief at Vibe, Danyel Smith, Senator Obama was late for the photo shoot. He asked her opinion on promptness for a Vibe photo shoot versus being on the Senate floor voting on an energy bill, which was what caused his late arrival. She expresses her disappointment that he could only stay for 20 minutes, not the usual 4 or more hours allotted for photo shoots. She understood about his tight schedule due to his campaigning and Senatorial duties. Read her editorial here.

CBS's "The Insider" announced news of the unusual double cover issue of Vibe magazine's September issue, which hits newsstands on August 14, 2007, on July 30, 2007. Photos of the covers were posted after the show broadcast online on "The Insider" website as well as on "Entertainment Tonight". With usual Internet speed, bloggers started posting. One blog post had 116 comments as of this writing. Word spreads as people digg the blog posts. Nice bit of buzz for the Senator before people have even read the Vibe article. Vibe's online site tells us that he will discussing some of the issues that have come up during his campaign regarding his ethnicity and issues relevant in his bid for the Democratic party nomination in his bid for President.

With primary elections at least 6 months away, there have been many polls, surveys and "the pundits say" about who is leading in the Democrat and Republican races. "Think Youth" online, lists all the candidates table style with column headers: Candidate, Party, Website, Blog, MySpace, You Tube, Facebook, Flicker, RSS. They missed: Eventful, Fanpop and Stumble Upon. "If Clicks Were Votes" used robotic tracking of unique website visits to the major players campaign sites. They showed Senator Obama leading that race. Despite what the polls may be showing, the only sure thing is: this is not our parents' campaign, but a whole new ballgame.