I just sent a text message to Barack Obama’s campaign (“VP” to 62262) so now I’ll be one of the first to know who he selects to be his running mate.  That’s the prize you get for connecting with the campaign.  The reply message I received seconds after pressing “send” said “Welcome to Obama Mobile.  You will be one of the 1st notified when the VP Candidate is selected.”  As soon as I get the word, I’ll pass it along to all of our loyal readers here on the blog.

Despite receiving the invitation to sign up several days ago, I initially decided against it figuring that I’d find out soon enough through some other means.  But today I read an oped column by Garrett Graff who was one of the web gurus involved in John Dean’s presidential campaign.  As Graff explains, “announcing Mr. Obama’s running mate by text message has little to do with proclaiming the selection and everything to do with getting out the vote on Election Day in November.”  As someone who has volunteered occasionally during the past ten years to do Get Out the Vote telephone calls leading up to and on election day, I immediately saw the benefit of a campaign being connected via text with tens of thousands of voters.  Between Caller ID, answering machines and busy families, it’s almost impossible to reach a receptive and responsive human being by calling a home telephone.  The recent flood of robocalls and the resulting disdain in which they are held by most telephone owners has further diluted the historical benefits of Get Out the Vote efforts.  And Graff cites an impressive statistic: 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 don’t even have a landline telephone.

This November, the majority of young people born in 1990 will be eligible to vote.  These are kids who mastered the computer before they could walk and are more at ease communicating via text message than by landline.  Anyone involved in politics who is not interested in learning more about the power of this technology as an electioneering tool is guaranteeing his own obsolescence.