I Was Wrong

For days I predicted Obama would text message his VP selection during the hours of 11 AM - 4 PM EDT. My assumption was based on:

• A Text Message is similar to a telephone call and sending a text message before 11 AM EDT will likely wake up/disturb PDT supporters.
  
  
• After 4 PM you miss a lot of evening news opportunities. If I were Obama's campaign I would want CNN's situation room discussing my selection and not non-stop coverage of when the textmessage would arrive.

The Obama text message was received by most around 3 AM which raises a number of significant issues:

• "There was too much build-up for Biden," says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "He lacks a ‘wow' factor. I don't think anybody is bowled over after all this drama. And to have a text message go out and disturb many people in the middle of the night?" --  Campaigns & Elections
  
  
• "Barack Obama didn't pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate. No surprise here. But the timing of his announcement -- early Saturday morning at 3 a.m. -- has some in the Clinton camp downright angry." - Newsmax
  
  
• What precedent does this set for campaign usage of the text message medium? Will campaigns feel that procrastinating, postponing and pushing latebreaking news via text message at all hours of the night is socially acceptable?

Patrick Ruffini weighs in with:

"The bottom line: by stringing everyone along, Obama's camp waited too long," Ruffini writes. "They didn't coordinate the logistics of securing the nominee with the actual notification process." -- Campaigns & Elections

I concur. This whole process hyped and distracted Obama's campaign message and destroyed a very effective line of attack he had last week with McCain's housing debacle. Every minute spent speculating about Obama's text message on the evening news is a minute not spent discussing how out of touch John McCain is.