Too Little Too Late?

August 22, 2008, 9:00 pm. Earlier this evening I called a friend of mine at a news network to see if she had heard anything about the Vice Presidential choice, and alas she had not. “We’re not going to know until after they tell their supporters on line. They are very big about using new technologies. If you’re registered you will know before I do.” The Obama campaign is very good at crafting political games and this one is to announce the choice for Vice President in a way it has never been done before—by e-mail not through the media.. So now I am prepared to stay up all night so I can be the first person to know who will be second on the ticket.

It’s 1:00am and I am still waiting. I think I fell asleep and heard something about Joe Biden. It must be a dream. I think I’ll log on to the web site and see if they inadvertently forgot to notify everyone on the list. 1:30am. I logged on to the website but all I got was Barack giving a speech and a financial pitch. I better go to some traditional news services and see if I was dreaming.

2:00am It wasn’t a dream Biden is the guy. I’ll try to get back on the website and see what the campaign has to say. See if I can get any insider stuff. I lopve to think of myself as an insider. I’m one of those people who knows so much inside stuff I find it hard to like anyone but...

2:15am I finally figured out how to get past the pitch. Here’s what the offical word is:

“Barack has chosen Joe Biden to be his running mate.

Joe Biden brings extensive foreign policy experience, an impressive record of collaborating across party lines, and a direct approach to getting the job done.

We have our team, but we also have our work cut out for us.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the leaders who will bring the change our country needs. But they can't do it alone.

Show your support for the Obama-Biden ticket by making a donation today.”

See there’s the pitch again. There is nothing they do that doesn’t include an ask for money. That’s why their fundraising is so successful. And by the way, you may think that I spelled official wrong. The misspelling was intentional in honor of Beijing and another big event they sponsored – the Women’s Conference. As the head of communications for the ‘official’ delegation I thought it would be nice to give everyone t-shirts. So I printed t-shirts that were supposed to say, “US Official Delegate” with lot’s of graphics. Well, the State Department went nuts because not everyone who got t-shirts was an ‘official’ delegate – some were mere staff. Talk about dumbing down international policy issues. Anyway, there was an enormous uproar until I noticed that the printer had inadvertently screwed up and instead of it saying official delegate it said offical delegate. None of us were Offical, so that made it OK to distribute the fine wearable to anyone who was there. I could tell you many ‘stupid State’ stories but you get the idea and it’s really TMI.

So what do I think about Biden. It's OK. I would have liked the selection to have been a bit more creative and someone with some management experience -- a woman, a governor, a military person. But that’s a blob for later. For the next few days I will be blobbing from the Democratic Convention in Denver. It is my intention to prioritize the events -- with parties way ahead of information gathering or politics. But isn’t that the way it should be when we all no there will be no surprises—except maybe by the Hillary delegates. They must be livid about the release of information that she was not even in consideration. Ir’s 4am. Too late and maybe too little. We’re just sayin...