There’s a bit of a debate over whether Barack Obama broke his promise to let his supporters know his VP decision first via text and email message. One DailyKos blogger blames news networks for actually reporting news that was leaked to them rather than carrying water for Obama to maintain the surprise. Marc Ambinder, meanwhile, offers the following defense:

This is absurd. The whole point of the text message gimmick was to make sure that supporters were the first ones to know — not merely to allow people the option of receiving word by text message if they happen to go to sleep early on a Friday night and avoid turning on the TV.

The bottom line is that the Obama campaign boasted for weeks that it would boldly change the way the VP choice was announced, and in the end the conventional VP choice got leaked in the conventional way. It isn’t a huge deal, but in its own way it’s a fitting metaphor for the entire Obama campaign.