Obama, Text Me Your VP Pick!
Democrats and pundits wait anxiously for a message about Obama's veep pick.
Aug. 22, 2008 — -- It's perhaps the most highly anticipated text message in presidential campaign history -- and it will likely come within the next 24 hours.
Who is Barack Obama's vice presidential pick? So far, the campaign has kept it a well-guarded secret despite a media frenzy in trying to be first with the news.
With the Obama campaign promising supporters that they'll be the first to know via text message or e-mail alert, some say they're keeping their PDAs close at hand and their cell phones charged.
"I feel like I'm checking my BlackBerry every 10 seconds," said Shayn Prapaisilp, 20, a George Washington University student who is home visiting his family in St. Louis.
Prapaisilp said he's flying to Washington, D.C., tonight and will check his cell phone for a text the minute he lands. "Someone's going to break it first," he predicted, "so I'm hoping I'll be in front of my TV or be able to access some sort of medium where I can access it."
Others are getting sick of the waiting -- and the rampant VP speculation of political pundits and reporters.
"I'm checking for the message often but have stopped listening to the guesses du jour," said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington. "It has become like waiting for the birth of a baby that is 10 days overdue."
With the news media working themselves into a lather this week trying to figure out who and when, it could be sweet revenge to some voters to know that political reporters, too, are anxiously awaiting the text and e-mail.
"I have been rather tied to my electronic devices, and it's made me a little loopy," Slate chief political correspondent John Dickerson told ABCNews.com. "I have slightly spotty cell service where I am, so I've hired some summer interns to light a series of warning fires along the distance between good cell service and my current location."
Dickerson said that thanks to a few false starts, his system has been thoroughly tested and he's confident he'll get the message.
