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Choose a VP already!

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  • My parents must really not like the outside world because they don't know anything about current events. They didn't know who Biden was, for some reason they still think Obama is Muslim (At least my mom no longer thinks he's the Antichrist), and they think that it isn't their business to care about what our government does. Got-damn, I've got at least two years left with these nuts. ARRGH!

    I just can't understand. One minute, they act smart. Then, they do something stupid. And whatever it is I do, they think I'm the weird one.
  • Is Obama supposed to start American politics over from scratch? No one expects him to do that, and he never promised to do that.
    I never said he had to. I just expected him to follow through on a promise. If he can't follow through on a simple text message promise, what's going to happen with the more difficult promises?
    Who said it was actually an official Obama campaign move? Some punk in the office probably found out and leaked it.
    If you think that it wasn't on purpose, you're mistaken. The AP would not have ran with it if they didn't have a reliable source. Also, it was leaked through an "official", not some intern. (As if the intern would have known.)
    I don't understand why you are angery about how it was leaked.
    I'm not at all angry. I'm just disappointed that he didn't keep his promise.
    Drudgereport thought it was byde because they found a factory printing stickers.....
    There's a big difference between that and a campaign official tipping off the press.
  • Whoever tipped the press off late Friday night is irrelevant because early Friday night reporters were already camped out at his house.
  • Whoever tipped the press off late Friday night is irrelevant because early Friday night reporters were already camped out at his house.
    Good that he only has one house :)
    Also, reporters pretty much besieged all three VP-candidate hopefuls' houses, the ones of Joe Biden, Tom Kane and Evan Bayh, the entire last week.
  • If you think that it wasn't on purpose, you're mistaken. The AP would not have ran with it if they didn't have a reliable source. Also, it was leaked through an "official", not some intern. (As if the intern would have known.)
    YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW LEAKY A CAMPAIGN IS. What did Obama have to gain to leak it to the press first before he texted all his followers.... NOTHING. There is nothing gained from leaking it if your going to try and do something special for your followers, the media would have known when they sent the text and it would have been the SAME exact STORY.
  • If you think that it wasn't on purpose, you're mistaken. The AP would not have ran with it if they didn't have a reliable source. Also, it was leaked through an "official", not some intern. (As if the intern would have known.)
    YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW LEAKY A CAMPAIGN IS. What did Obama have to gain to leak it to the press first before he texted all his followers.... NOTHING. There is nothing gained from leaking it if your going to try and do something special for your followers, the media would have known when they sent the text and it would have been the SAME exact STORY.
    Seriously, the Obama campaign deserves credit for holding it so long - it leaked hours before the official announcement. HOURS. Any other campaign couldn't possibly have held it this long. Even conceiving of holding it this long is kind of astounding.
  • edited August 2008
    I just expected him to follow through on a promise. If he can't follow through on a simple text message promise, what's going to happen with the more difficult promises?
    As I remember, he said that the announcement was going to be by text message. If you want to call that a promise, he kept that promise.

    Now, if he had promised that there would be no leaking of the VP's name before the announcement, I could see where you might have an objection. As far as I know, he did not make such a promise.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • As I remember, he said that the announcement was going to be by text message. If you want to call that a promise, he kept that promise.

    Now, if he had promised that there would be no leaking of the VP's name before the announcement, I could see where you might have an objection. As far as I know, he did not make such a promise.
    Ahh... Clinton speak. Welcome to "change."
  • If he had promised to release it via textmessagery to his constitutioneunts, would that be Bush-speak?
  • via textmessagery
    Bush wouldn't even know what a text message was - so you're giving him too much credit. :-)
  • An interesting point about the Obama campaign is who is behind the campaign: David Axelrod

    Axelrod's "other" PR firm is well known for launching astroturfing campaigns. The Secret Side of David Axelrod. Makes you wonder how much astroturfing was used in the early days of the Obama campaign.
  • As I remember, he said that the announcement was going to be by text message. If you want to call that a promise, he kept that promise.
    Those darned facts, Joe. Did you not read the news accounts? Here is what the Dallas newspaper said:
    negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Mr. Obama had chosen.

    How about the Minneapolis Star Tribune?
    Sen. Barack Obama's pledge to supporters they would be the "first to know" his running mate turned out to be a brilliant but flawed communications strategy.

    How about the Associated Press?
    Sen. Barack Obama's pledge to supporters that they would be the "first to know" his running mate turned out to be a savvy but unworkable communications strategy.

    Or the San Francisco Chronicle:
    Over the past few weeks, Barack Obama's campaign encouraged millions of mobile phone users to sign up to receive a text message so they could be "the first to know" who Obama's vice presidential choice was.

    Or the great headline from Wired News:
    Obama Leaves Texters at the Altar, Runs Off With Dinosaur Press

    This is from www.campaignsandelections.com.
    So despite Obama's vow that his choice would remain secret until he sent the text message, his supporters were not the first to know.

    And on and on and on and on....

    Come on Joe. You're a smart guy. Don't lessen that reputation by engaging in shenanigans like this.
  • Kilanary, so you figured when Obama picked his VP he just turned around and went to his cell and texted everyone?

    The only way a secret is kept between two people is if one is dead.
  • edited August 2008
    Kilanary, so you figured when Obama picked his VP he just turned around and went to his cell and texted everyone?
    I don't really care what he thought. If leaks are as prevalent as you state (and certainly history would back this up), then he shouldn't have made the promise. It was stupid. Why promise something you can't deliver? Certainly someone could have figured out it was a stunt that would make Obama look inadequate - or do you think the headlines about his failed promise are a good thing?
    Post edited by Kilarney on
  • Obama wins both ways. The press are happy they got the scoop plus he still has those hundreds of thousands of mobile phone numbers for future use. The news broke at night, right? So the first thing most people would get is a bleeping phone in the middle of the night, well before they hear it on the radio/read a newspaper.
  • The press are happy they got the scoop plus he still has those hundreds of thousands of mobile phone numbers for future use. The news broke at night, right? So the first thing most people would get is a bleeping phone in the middle of the night, well before they hear it on the radio/read a newspaper.
    I don't think it's a major deal to his campaign. The only issue I have is that here was a real situation that could have shown real "change", and it got botched. I agree, there are silver linings to this cloud. However, the negatives are present as well.
  • Did you not read the news accounts?
    Yes. I did not read them. I didn't care to get all hot and bothered about the speculation about who it was going to be. I knew that it would be revealed in the fullness of time, and so I didn't read any of that stuff.

    The quotes you supplied all say that he said that his supporters would be the first to know. They didn't say that he said there would be no leaks. Apparently his supporters were the first to know, at least officially. Once again I have to say that a leak is not an announcement. I agree with Mr. rhinocero that it is amazing that they held out against a leak for as long as they did.

    But let's say, just for argument, that you are 100% right. Then you have to ask, "Who cares?" I honestly don't understand why you think that this leak has anything to do with his ability to be a good president. It simply doesn't matter to me. Even if there was a "broken promise", it was broken in such a minor way that it is de minimis.

    Finally, implying that I have to agree with you in order to be "a smart guy" is one of those logical fallacies you like to talk about, isn't it?
  • DENVER (CNN) – Barack Obama planned to name Joe Biden as his running mate by text message at 8 a.m. ET Saturday morning, but was forced to move up the announcement when CNN broke the story after midnight, a senior Obama official said.

    At 12:42 a.m. ET, CNN reported that Obama had picked Biden to join him on the ticket. Several other news organizations confirmed the CNN report shortly afterwards.

    “Had a certain network not blown our cover at a certain time the text message would have gone out in the morning, 8 a.m. Eastern,” Robert Gibbs, a senior advisor, said with a grin on Sunday. “We told people they would find out from us. When we decided it was going to get out we decided to send the text out.”

    Gibbs said he believes despite the fact that the rollout plan had to be altered, a “vast majority of the people” still learned by text message when they woke up in the morning.

    Some Republicans and others suggested that Obama’s 3 a.m. ET email had been intended as a deliberate swipe at Hillary Clinton, who ran a primary season ad that referenced that hour of the morning to make the case she was more qualified to handle a breaking crisis.


    From CNN
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