We still don’t know who Barack Obama will choose as a running mate, and with the senator on vacation with family this week, it’s probably safe to assume we’re not going to hear any announcements until next week.
But because of the considerable interest in the looming news — the convention begins in two weeks, so we know the announcement has to come sometime soon — any kind of hint about a pending statement causes a stir.
And late yesterday, the Obama campaign sent this email, from campaign manager David Plouffe, to its list of supporters:
Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign — choosing a running mate.
You have helped build this movement from the bottom up, and Barack wants you to be the first to know his choice.
Sign up today to be the first to know: http://my.barackobama.com/vp
You will receive an email the moment Barack makes his decision, or you can text VP to 62262 to receive a text message on your mobile phone.
Once you’ve signed up, please forward this email to your friends, family, and coworkers to let them know about this special opportunity.
No other campaign has done this before. You can be part of this important moment.
Presumably, when a nominee makes the announcement, he/she does so in some kind of high-profile speech. And since Obama is in Hawaii, there probably won’t be any such speech this week.
But, given Plouffe’s choice of words — “about to make” — and the realization that the campaign could very well make an announcement without a speech, some news outlets are speculating about whether word is “imminent” and “very near.”
To be sure, this may very well be a stunt to get email addresses. If so, it’s a pretty clever stunt — the campaign recognizes the anticipation surrounding the naming of the running mate, and is capitalizing.
Kleiman added:
Why announce now? [I assume “soon” has to mean something like “this week”; otherwise it’s too big a tease, and not really consistent with the campaign’s operating style.] Conventional wisdom has been that the Olympics are going to take the country’s mind off politics for a while. Or is it that a VP announcement would make a big enough splash to break through, and the teaser campaign gets some ink and electrons even while Obama is “on vacation” [which I suspect translates in part “trying to persuade Grandma to come to Denver”].
My only thought on this is that McCain expects to have the campaign trail to himself this week, and naming Obama’s running mate would erase that advantage altogether. Under this scenario, the VP news dominates this week while Obama’s away, then Obama returns to the campaign trail, with his new running mate, next week, which leads right into the convention, which begins two weeks from today.
Or it’s a stunt. We’ll find out soon enough.
