Very clever. An e-mail from the Polk County Democrats informs me that the Obama campaign will be sending out the vice-presidential selection by text message.
To “hear the historic news wherever you are,” just text IOWA to 62262. Then you’ll receive updates from the Obama campaign in Iowa on your cell phone.
I don’t text message, but I imagine a huge number of people will be signing up for these updates.
Speaking of cell phones, the Obama campaign will have the biggest phone bank ever at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. About 75,000 people are expected to attend Obama’s speech the night he will accept the Democratic nomination, and the campaign will ask them to call unregistered voters.
And speaking of crowds, the Des Moines Register’s website has the video from Obama’s town hall in Cedar Rapids today. I only caught a small fragment, but I liked what he said about how parents need to turn off the television and unplug the video games.
In part of the town hall that I did not see, Obama went after John McCain on energy policy:
“Under my opponent’s plan, the oil companies get billions more and we stay in the same cycle of addiction and dependence on big oil that got us into this crisis in the first place,” Obama told an audience of about 1,000 at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. “That’s a risk that we just can’t afford to take.”
Obama was referring to McCain’s support for a gas-tax holiday and expanding the areas where oil companies can drill. Obama says a tax holiday would pad oil company profits and that they already have access to areas where they are not drilling.
[…]“It won’t drop prices in this administration, the next administration or the administration after that,” he said. “Although it won’t save you dollars at the pump, I will say it has raised campaign dollars.”
Obama said McCain raised $1 million from oil company executives at a fundraiser in Houston last month.
Democrats better have a good answer on oil drilling, because not only is McCain blaming Obama for high gas prices in some of his campaign ads, down-ticket Republicans like Tom Latham will also use this issue against their opponents.
6 Comments
They've been texting for quite some time
I was getting text messages through the primary season. Pretty much all the major events and endorsements, and reminders to contact friends in each primary state to vote/caucus. It’s definitely an effective and fast way to get news out.
rf Thu 31 Jul 2:50 PM
What's it like?
A text a day or every few? Or is it more like constant text spam? I would love to sign up and get the veep text, but I don’t really want constant spam…
american007 Thu 31 Jul 4:57 PM
Definitely less than a text a day
It’s been sporadic. I’ve had several stretches of 2-3 weeks without getting any messages. At most maybe 3-4 msgs per week when there were several primaries taking place.
rf Thu 31 Jul 8:41 PM
Very Clever!
They really are on the ball as far as tech savvy campaigning goes. When is this message coming?
baldy08 Thu 31 Jul 2:56 PM
I have no idea
Most people think right before the Olympics, but who knows?
I think the Des Moines Register announced its presidential endorsements last December by text message.
desmoinesdem Thu 31 Jul 2:57 PM
Pretty blah event...
I was there, and besides the early jab over the Britney and Paris Hilton ad, it seemed pretty uneventful. His oil drilling answer seemed to leave most everyone satisfied, but not totally sold on the issue.
Overall, pretty blah event. Even the Q/A was a little disappointing, and a fair number of people were leaving early to beat the traffic. But it was hot (who has an event in a non-AC gym in July?), and it was a mid-week, fairly short notice, low-key event. If nothing else, it was good to see him and I definitely am starting to get the impression that he likes being in Iowa and won’t forget our state down the road.
american007 Thu 31 Jul 10:01 PM