Wait till morning!
AP: "Late Friday, several officials said the text message announcement would be distributed Saturday morning, a few hours before a scheduled rally at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where the Democratic ticket would appear for the first time." (Via Drudge.)
According to the Springfield Journal-Register, gates open at noon and Obama's speech is expected to happen around 2pm. That's 1pm and 3pm Eastern. That gives enough of a window to make an announcement "a few hours before" the rally without waking up folks on the West Coast at like 5:00 AM local time on a Saturday. I'm thinking an 11am EDT text, or thereabouts?
But, can they really keep this secret for another 14 1/2 hours??? They've gotta get the running mate to Illinois; everybody is now watching Delaware flights, candidates' homes; MSNBC has supposed crossed two of the top candidates off the list, thus narrowing the possibilities considerably; etc. Isn't the media going to figure this out definitively before morning, thus undermining the whole purpose of the "be the first to know" text message? Seems crazy to wait till morning.
UPDATE, 9:00 PM: Ambinder also reports, as of 12 minutes ago: "Source: text will be sent tomorrow am, a few hrs before Obama speaks in Springfield."
Meanwhile, MSNBC's First Read reports -- in light of the apparent exclusion of Bayh and Kaine -- "which news organization is going to irresponsibly go with Biden without confirmation from Biden or the Obama campaign -- even though they all have the same information we do?"
UPDATE, 10:05 PM: Ambinder at 9:30: "All the press corps thinks it's Biden but won't pull the trigger. No need to get this one wrong."
According to the Springfield Journal-Register, gates open at noon and Obama's speech is expected to happen around 2pm. That's 1pm and 3pm Eastern. That gives enough of a window to make an announcement "a few hours before" the rally without waking up folks on the West Coast at like 5:00 AM local time on a Saturday. I'm thinking an 11am EDT text, or thereabouts?
But, can they really keep this secret for another 14 1/2 hours??? They've gotta get the running mate to Illinois; everybody is now watching Delaware flights, candidates' homes; MSNBC has supposed crossed two of the top candidates off the list, thus narrowing the possibilities considerably; etc. Isn't the media going to figure this out definitively before morning, thus undermining the whole purpose of the "be the first to know" text message? Seems crazy to wait till morning.
UPDATE, 9:00 PM: Ambinder also reports, as of 12 minutes ago: "Source: text will be sent tomorrow am, a few hrs before Obama speaks in Springfield."
Meanwhile, MSNBC's First Read reports -- in light of the apparent exclusion of Bayh and Kaine -- "which news organization is going to irresponsibly go with Biden without confirmation from Biden or the Obama campaign -- even though they all have the same information we do?"
UPDATE, 10:05 PM: Ambinder at 9:30: "All the press corps thinks it's Biden but won't pull the trigger. No need to get this one wrong."
posted by Brendan Loy at
8/22/2008 08:28:00 PM
