e selection for a vice presidential running mate into something that the technologically savvy younger generation will think of as a major event.By insisting on making his announcement via a simultaneous transmission informing everybody who cares of his choice, he has come up with a way of appealing to people who view their computers and other gadgets as an essential part of life.
BY GETTING PEOPLE to constantly think of the Obama campaign every time they check their e-mail or text messages, he has stimulated interest in his campaign from a group of people who otherwise might not have cared in the slightest who Barack wants to succeed him – in the event of his untimely demise while in office.
He has turned the announcement of a vice president into a historic event – instead of the routine announcement that every presidential hopeful makes in the days just prior to his respective political party’s nominating convention.
How ridiculous has this become?
I gave over my e-mail address (the same one included in the right-hand column of this weblog) to the Obama Campaign earlier this week. I was curious to see how detailed their message would be, and if they would really give it up to anybody who asked.
SINCE THEN, I have received e-mails from the Obama people every day. I must admit to feeling a moment of anticipation whenever I noticed a message from “Obama for America” (or one time, from “Jon Carson, Barack Obama”).
Is this it? Do we finally know whether Evan Bayh (the Indiana politico whose father is a legendary D.C. politico) gets to be the equivalent of 1992 Al Gore (the Tennessee politico whose father was a legendary D.C. politico) to Obama’s 1992 Bill Clinton (the public policy geek whose experience came outside of the District of Columbia). Ah, who's kidding whom; that was never anything more than a ridiculous Hoosier fantasy.
Of course, all I felt was a dash of disappointment as those e-mails of recent days turned out to be little more than promotional announcements for the Obama campaign operations.
No, I’m not interested in turning the Democratic Convention in Denver into the equivalent of the Super Bowl by hosting a “Convention Watch Party,” as was suggested in one of those pre-announcement e-mails. Nor am I going to give the Obama Campaign any personal information about myself so they could send me more detailed information about themselves via e-mail.
I’M STARTING TO get the sense that even after I receive the announcement e-mail, I’m going to continue to get messages from Campaign Obama, letting me know his every promotional stunt.
Does this mean the big e-mail announcement was little more than an excuse for the Obama people to build an e-mail list so they can bury us with politically oriented spam? And this is worse, because they actually got us to ask for it.
It is because of that factor that I do not feel all that sorry for the Obama people, who in recent days have been the subject of an attempt at a scam. Somebody (or perhaps more than one somebody) is sending out fraudulent e-mail and text messages that appear to the untrained eye to be THE announcement.
Of course, these fakes claim that people such as Hillary R. Clinton or John Kerry are Obama’s choice for V-P, as though someone wants to inspire a repeat of the Chicago Sun-Times gaffe from 1980, when the newspaper in its early editions had a story claiming GOP presidential hopeful Ronald Reagan would turn to former President Gerald Ford to be his running mate.
BUT THE FACT that someone went to the trouble to stage such gag messages (personally, I think they’re more half-wit than humorous) is just evidence that Obama’s tactic succeeded in gaining the public’s attention.
Who would think it funny to try to pass a fake message about Republican John McCain’s choice of running mate? For that matter, who (outside of Mitt Romney) really cares who McCain picks for his running mate?
Obama has managed to stage this whole affair in such a way that HIS choice for VP is BIG NEWS!, while McCain’s choice will be little more than an afterthought – someone whom only political geeks with a special interest in the Republican Party will pay any attention to.
It also will result that the eyes of the nation (and the parts of the world not obsessed with the conflict between Russia and Georgia) will be on Springfield, Ill., on Saturday, when Obama and his running mate make their first joint appearance together, kicking off several days worth of activity that will lead to Denver and the Democratic National Convention.
IT WILL INCREASE the amount of activity at the Old State Capitol building, with thousands of people to be crammed into the courtyard that separates the building that Abraham Lincoln knew as the Illinois Statehouse from his downtown Springfield law office. It will result in a logjam of people who are asked to gather at noon for an event that (maybe) will start around 2 p.m.
I wonder how many people actually used their Internet access to properly RSVP their intent to attend the Saturday rally, as was requested by the Obama campaign in one of the e-mail messages they sent me after I gave them the Chicago Argus e-mail address.
But I also couldn’t help but notice that the message telling me the procedure I would have to follow if I wanted to attend the Springfield rally also provided a convenient link to click on, if I could not attend the rally, but wanted to send a financial contribution to Obama for America.
When it comes to campaign stunts, the ones that help raise money are the ones that are of the highest political priority.
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EDITOR’S NOTES: The nation likely will get its first look at the Obama/______ team (http://www.sj-r.com/news/x996441285/RSVPs-encouraged-for-Obama-appearance-Saturday) on Saturday in Springfield, Ill.
Gee, what a shock (sarcasm intended). The GOP’s attempt to bind Antoin Rezko’s activities to Barack Obama (http://www.newsweek.com/id/154782) results in factually inaccurate television campaign ads.
If Obama really made the decision about vice president, then the past few days of waiting for an e-mail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbIlbkZtisk) have truly been an exercise in Barack toying with the emotions of his supporters.
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