Political campaigns are not high tech all the time

YOUNGSTOWN — While the presidential campaigns are high-tech operations, they haven’t abandoned the basics.

Democrat Barack Obama sent text messages announcing Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate to millions of people. The campaigns of Obama and Republican John McCain — as well as their supporters and detractors — use the Internet to get out their messages.

Type “Barack Obama” into YouTube.com and you’ll get more than 200,000 videos. Typing “John McCain” gets you a list of more than 100,000 choices.

But the campaigns still use traditional ways to “sell” their candidates: Buttons, shirts, bumper stickers and yard signs.

For more on this story, see Sunday’s Vindicator or vindy.com