The text and the fury

The traditional media beat the text message, my friends! CNN got the veep story before the Obama campaign could hit the send button on its cell phone. It was our John Henry moment. There will be songs sung.

And give credit to the Obama campaign for having the discipline to wait until 3 a.m. Saturday to do it - clever timing considering the Clinton campaign's most well-known ad (Andrew Sullivan called it). However, not everyone got the message at 3 a.m. Mine arrived at 1:04 a.m. Apparently some of the networks had trouble handling the load.

If the media was right about Biden, it's probably safe to say McCain will pick Mitt Romney. That announcement is scheduled for August 29, right after the Democratic National Convention wraps up.

Speaking of which, I'm flying out to Denver today. Posting will be spotty over the next week.

Me first

I just received a personal e-mail from Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, offering to tell me - yes, me - who the candidate chooses as his running mate before anyone else:

Dear Gary,

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.

Although I've actually done nothing to help him build his movement, I find it appropriate that Barack has singled me out for this special honor.

Plouffe provided me two options to get the scoop - either sign up using a special link on the campaign Web site, or send a text message. I chose the latter. After all, I might be in my car when the deal goes down.

So, stay tuned. I'll let you know after they let me know.