Conspiracy theories are running wild about who Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama is going to name as his vice presidential running mate. Our news tips inbox is on fire, too, with hot leads as to who the Golden Boy will choose as his Veep candidate. The announcement is expected any day now, but one Colorado blogger is convinced he’s scooped the national media. Here’s what Ryan Kendall pitched to us:
“I tested the all website combo's such as ObamaKaine.com, etc. The only one that works is ObamaBayh.Org, which redirects to Obama's Campaign website--try it yourself. I call it here, 1:27 PM 08.20.08, Barack Obama Taps Indiana Senator Evan Bayh for VP.”
With Internet domains a dime-a-dozen commodity, anyone with $8 and a penchant for speculation can snatch up potentially valuable names in the hopes of reselling them in the future or creating a shell "presence" in cyberspace.
Web domain registrations have prematurely exposed big announcements in the business world. Such was the case when someone was clever enough to look up who was behind a flashy 2003 marketing campaign pushing consumers to "Meet Ted" at MeetTed.com. Despite efforts to keep the campaign vaguely defined until a set date, the media soon discovered United Airlines was behind the promotion, pushing its now-defunct low-cost airline.
Applying the same logic to ObamaBayh.org, we’ve discovered the site is registered to Joe Chan of Allston, Mass. So is Chan a front man for the Obama campaign? We doubt it, and calls to his Sprint PCS voice mail went unreturned.
Don't call your bookie betting on this one.