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The power of text

James Forsyth

Friday, 29th August 2008

The Obama campaign’s text messaging obsession really is quite something. Here at Mile High stadium, quiz questions keep popping up on the jumbo screen asking people to text in the answer. The Obama folk have also set up a competition to see which state can send the most texts in support of Obama tonight—within an hour 38,000 had been sent. It is tempting to dismiss this as all rather childish but it gives the campaign direct and instant access to tens of thousands of voters. This is going to come in rather handy on election day.

PS The McCain ad I blogged about earlier turns out to be a classy message of congratulation to Obama recognising the historic nature of his achievement. PPS Some Meg Whitman buzz on the McCain VP front. Personally, I think she'd be a great pick for McCain—a woman with economic creds and tech savvy. It would be far harder to portray the McCain ticket as representative of the past if the former Ebay CEO is on it. (Whitman's presence on the ticket would also an alternative explanation for why Romney is going to so many pre-convention McCain rallies, the two are old and good friends).