Hey Obama, Where's My $&#&@ Joe Biden Text Message?

It was widely reported that the Barack Obama campaign was trying something innovative, communicating with supporters and other interested parties by text message. It's said to significantly increase voter turnout on Election Day to get texts.

The big moment for the campaign to gather cell phone numbers was an offer that if you give them your digits, you can be "among the first to know" who Obama's running mate would be. As a journalist, I sign up for everything from every candidate.


Well, it's been 45 minutes since BarackObama.Com began splashing news of the Obama-Biden ticket along with the predictable fundraising appeal. But thus far, my cell phone and Miles' are both bereft of any texts from Obama Mobile. No, really -- when I sent my cell number in to sign up, I got a response text that said, "Welcome to Obama Mobile."


Be the first to know? Are you kidding? Top Obama aides leaked this to campaign-trail journalists by mid-evening Friday, hours before even the campaign website said anything. No, in the end this whole text-message thing feels like a bit of a ruse. The whole thing was a big, fat data-mine.