One of the catalysts for Obama Baton was a growing concern that this election would become about the little things. That is, over the final month of the race, this country would get caught up, bogged down, and sucked into the specifics. At best, I thought, we’d watch debates on small parts of policies (”$18B in earmarks” of the $438B deficit) and at worst we’d be distracted by poor word choices (”that one” from last night). And not that those details don’t matter but I worried that it would be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture:
We have one candidate that has re-energized the American people around our future. He has certainly built interest in politics, but more importantly, he has moved us to take responsibility and action.
So in a sense, this election is about the little things. But not the policy specifics or nuances of speech; rather, all the little acts and achievements of individuals and groups of people throughout the U.S.
It will be easy to trivialize this. The same way you can trivialize the artists he has inspired to make posters and t-shirts, the designers he has inspired to make websites, the citizens he has inspired to vote for the first time, the community organizers…
Yet the fact is Barack Obama has inspired me to do something just like he’s inspired many others to contribute to changing our world for the better. That’s why I am (now we are) running with a blue baton instead of empty-handed.
As you know we’ve been hustling (getting everything like this site up/running) and hustlin’ (getting the word out) when it comes to Obama Baton.
It’s nice to see it all start to come together as well as see some people start to take note. In particular, we want to say thanks to (and direct you to) Peacock Nine and Hee-Haw Marketing for blogging about us.
Peacock Nine said:
Our most recent find is Obama Baton. This idea is a nice one. Leverage the kinship that marathoners feel to spread the Obama-virus in a visually stirring, emotionally poignant and creative way.
Thank you, PN. Hope you don’t mind if we “borrow” some of that language when pitching it to the press.
And thank you to everyone who has shown interest thus far by visiting, commenting, following and/or joining this movement.
Welcome again to our site, all. As Clay mentioned, we’re less than 10 days in from idea to site, and once again would like to include you in this development process. This time, we’re asking for your feedback on the two idea descriptions below. Which do you think works better for “About” copy above? And why (if you have the time)? Thanks for getting involved - let’s keep this thing moving!
Option 1
Barack Obama is on the last leg of his marathon, the Presidential race. The campaign he continues to run inspires the American people to come together to bring about change. It has moved us, two 27 year-old guys, to take action. Specifically, we it has moved us to take something personal and create a shared experience. That’s what Obama Baton is all about. Quite simply, it’s a blue baton that represents our support of this incredible candidate. We’ll be running through our two cities with it over the next few weeks. We’ll be passing it on to anybody, who wants to run with us. And, ultimately, we’ll help Obama Baton cross the finish line at the Chicago and New York City Marathons.
Barack Obama runs for all of us. That’s why we run with Obama Baton. Join us.
Option 2
Let’s run together for Obama. Barack Obama inspires people to come together to change the country and the world for the better. We’re just a couple of individuals he’s moved to take action. We also happen to be running the Chicago and New York City marathons. But rather than show our support as a couple of guys on raceday, we have been inspired to involve as many people as possible. We wanted to do something that brought us closer to other supporter. We wanted to create an experience to share with them. That’s why we’ve created Obama Baton. Join us as we train around our two cities. Join us on October 12th and November 2nd when this baton to crosses the finish lines as a symbol of all our commitment to inspire each other to action.
Our hope is Obama will run the country, right after Obama Baton finishes a couple marathons.
9 days ago we talked about the idea.
Today the site is live. The miracle of the modern web…
Enjoy! If you see anything that looks/acts funny, fire up a comment.