Obama Campaign: Watch The Debate On CNN

I just received the following text from the official Obama text message number (62262) which first sent out the Vice Presidential news:

Watch Barack debate John McCain tonight at 9pm Eastern on CNN. Also, remind friends to register to vote at VoteForChange.com. Please forward this message.

This is particularly odd given that the debate will be airing on every network, both broadcast and cable, at 9pm Eastern. Has the Obama campaign officially endorsed CNN?

When contacted, an Obama staffer said it was "shorter than saying 'on cable news,'" and that they were "not trying to make news."

A CNN representative told me, "It was a complete surprise to us."

In July, the campaign blasted a text promoting Obama's speech in Berlin saying, "The speech will be live on CNN."

Update 6:30 PM: The Obama campaign must have revised its message. I've just now received a follow-up text saying,

Watch Barack Debate John McCain tonight at 9pm ET on any of the major networks or cable. Fwd this msg & remind friends to register to vote at VoteForChange.com

Looks like the campaign figured out how to speak SMS short-hand and thus free up enough characters to type out "any of the major networks or cable" vs. "CNN."

Comments

[BENACEY]

you people areso gulible...CNN=CABLE NEWS NETWORK........gosh

[RP830]

Barack is going to this!!!

[Whatwasthatallabout]

I did NOTget that CNN text. You must be on some other list in addition to the Obama Camp's list.

[Agentlady007]

This ...is good. So John McCain decided to show. ( Don't jump out the window...please.)

I've never seen Barack Obama look or sound better than at this PR conference from yesterday.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/bolatestremarks/

[dct1999]

The original message was a gaffe, it shouldn't have happened.

Come on Obama Team, you are supposed to be exceptionally tech savvy!

[PAposter]

My messages says: Watch on any of the major networks or cable. It did not specify CNN.
Where do they get his sh*t from?

[dct1999]

C-Span or nothing!

[dplfdr]

Get over it smartypants.

[jakie]

I WILL BE WATCHING IT ON C SPAN

[Daly]

me too - whew ! for a sec I thought ONLY CNN would have it;

I like to watch/listen on C SPAN and use my own brain to decide; so, no talking heads needed.

Got dvd to watch afterwards.

[joshuahmcdonald]

SAME HERE! Who needs the pundits to tell us what to think? Not me. I'm going to watch and think for myself, thank you very much!

[liberalrebuttal]

Yes, the pundits are annoying

[rock2casbah]

PBS has David Brooks from the conservative camp who is the most frantic, longest winded pundit of any major network. He will be right in there front and center taking over the stage. Praising McCain to the hilt. It is a given. Mark Shields on the Democratic side is very reserved and will not get much of a word in edgewise, and is not at all assertive, so he will be drowned out by Brooks.

So you get the same thing as you are going to get on Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC etc from PBS nowadays.

[suzygirl]

Same here

[harryhood81]

PBS is the best place to watch because you can see McCain's goiter in HD

[harriscrl3]

CSPAN is my channel for these stuff. I need a quiet expereince from the NOISE of political Pundits

Carol

[Bluejay00234]

I prefer MSNBC untill the usual A-holes come on, then I turn to CSPAN.

[BrazilJiujitsu83]

im watching it on msnbc, i can deal with joe scarborough and pat buchanan...those are decent republicans.....

[roshni]

Much Ado About Nothing.
CNN is no friend of Obama's.

[Mugzi]

That's the truth! Around 5:30 ET, they were already making excuses for his responses. Unfortunately, jm's ace-in-the-hole is rigged voting machines and disenfranchizing students and others likely to vote Democratic. The Repugs have started...check out bradblog.com

[Agentlady007]

Yes they are. Who told you that?

[k6007]

Uninterrupted, BS-Free coverage on cspan....'Family Guy' on the cartoon network afterwards :P

[LemonMeringue]

Text messaging is such a terrible form of communication.

[pilgrim7]

Same here. I opted out.

[editorjuno]

It sure is -- and then your carrier makes you pay extra for it. The PeeCee and the TeeVee are more than enough, thank you very much!

[dzymzlzy]

They just sent out another text stating that you can watch the debate on "any of the major networks or cable" channels.

[azeb]

The updated version should have been, watch all cables except FIX news and it's top fixer, Sean Hannity.