Want 2 B the first 2 know Barack Obama’s VP choice? You can sign up to receive a text message alert when he decides! Is this a good idea? Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey concludes, “Instead of looking presidential in making this announcement, Obama looks like a parent trying too hard to be hip around his kid’s friends.” But it’s good for Obama’s contact list, bloggers conclude. At the Los Angeles Times Andrew Malcolm notes, “This modern tech announcement gimmick, of course, also has the added benefit of presumably getting thousands of people to offer the campaign their e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers, a priceless, free recruiting and fund-raising tool.” The Democratic Daily’s Pamela Leavey agrees: “Of course, the skeptics in all of us recognize this is a great way for the Obama camp to harvest more email addresses and cell phone numbers.” Can you expect your text message anytime soon? Maybe, but NRO’s Jim Geraghty says, “I think a campaign would be mad to announce the running mate during the Olympics. And particularly with the news cycle we’re having right now. The day of the announcement, we could have Russian planes bombing the Georgian capital, or some Cinderella story of a little-known American winning gold, or some detail in John Edwards’ story being contradicted further.” If you can’t get enough text messages from Obama, you can also text the campaign to receive hip-hop-inspired ringtones mixed with Obama’s speeches. Now you can literally “answer the call to help change America” (as Obama says in Ringtone #12).
