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Say Hello to Obama-Texting!

August 28th, 2008
By HOLLY IN CINCINNATI, Copy Editor

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How do you feel about spam on your cell phone? Once I got a text message from “Brianna” who “wanted to meet me” and I did not appreciate the porn spam.

I’ve heard this story twice on NPR this afternoon and think it’s a terrible idea. If I heard this correctly, the Obama campaign will text-message its supporters and ask them to text-message everyone on their cell phone’s contact list. All we need is political spam on our cell phones, so I sure hope not! Unwanted text messages are not only annoying but also cost $$!

All Things Considered, August 28, 2008 · The Obama campaign has used text messaging to communicate with its supporters. Andrew Rasiej, founder of TechPresident, a blog that focuses on technology and the presidential campaigns, says the cell phone numbers can be used to get out the vote on Nov. 4.

techPresident: The Medium is the Text Message



This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Denver Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama, Technology, 2008 Elections, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    Considering you are about the most anti-Obama person I've read on the Web, why do you suppose that you would receive a text message from Obama or his supporters?
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    Elrod, you need to do more reading on the Web.

    Although many of my friends are Democrats who oppose Obama, many other friends are Democrats who support Obama so I suspect that I will soon be spammed.

    If I thought Obama was the right candidate at the right time, I'd support him.
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    Holly, I do agree with you in that if I thought Obama was the strongest candidate for president, no text message would stop me from voting for him, but I think that any spam could have a negative effect on his goal.

    For example, if a telemarketer called me during dinner, asking me to support the World Wildlife Foundation, I would be annoyed. It wouldn't matter to me whether the call was to stop the killing of 50 pandas in China, I would still be annoyed at the fact that they are calling me in my private home. In my opinion, Obama will receive most of Hillary's former supporters, but for those supporters who are on the fence, Obama cannot afford to send out a mass text message to his potential supporters and make them cringe with the small, annoying disturbance of an unwanted and costly text message.

    Additionally, the demographic that would most likely respond to a plea to send out an Obama-supporting text is the younger generation, who would most likely send it to more members of the younger generation. Obama has already won this constituency! He needs to concentrate on winning the support of former Hillary lovers, and texting is not the answer. And in my experience, many middle-aged women have absolutely no idea how to work their phone, let alone know how to read a text message.

    Now if he sent them all a piping hot plate of brownies, that's a different story.
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    Holly said: "Elrod, you need to do more reading on the Web."

    Holly, Your kidding... Right?

    You don't really think you can distance yourself from the vicious anti-Obama rants you've posted by telling Elrod he "need[s] to do more reading on the Web", do you?

    You've been out and out nasty when it comes to Barrack Obama though to be fair you kinda 'stepped into the shadows' when "Silhoutte" showed up... Coincidence?

    In a more "Can't we all Get Alone" vain:

    Your cell provider can turn text messaging OFF.

    After two text message ads from Verizon (at 10¢ a pop) I called them up and they turned it off.

    But then, IMO, text messaging on a cell phone is like writing your theses on a '10 key' or sending Morse Code on a land line tapping the mouthpiece. Cute but not very practical... Have I mentioned all the money the phone companies make on them. :-)
 
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