Word clouding President Barack Obama's inaugural speech

That might take some getting used to. Vice President Biden, too.

Where was Biden's announcement?

There's no way Joe Biden and his people would try to overshadow Obama on this day...but given how the Obama camp told voters about the Biden choice, shouldn't Biden's people be doing a similar thing?

While "he" updated his Facebook profile, the only change on Biden's MySpace profile is the profile photo; there have been no comments posted since January. "His" Twitter account is silent.

Maybe it's because Biden was out of the race and is suddenly jumping back in. Or maybe it's because Biden is now part of the Obama brand. But it's a fractured media world, and I would have thought Biden would be announcing the news in some way, shape or form on the Internets.

Obama made news media look silly

I was supposed to have my annual review on Friday. But it got pushed back because everyone in the newsroom was clutching their phones, waiting for Barack Obama to txt us his choice for vice prsdnt. When KMBC suggested Evan Bayh was the choice, we wondered what happened to Kathleen Sebelius.

We knew Obama had to announce the v.p. choice before his speech in Springfield today, but we kind of figured it would be during a time where we could report on it as it happened.

You had poor Wolf Blitzer standing in his Situation Room, speculating. Kansas City news reporters staking out a company that produces political signs. You had reporters in Kansas staking out Sebelius. We all thought Obama's media machine would come through.

Well, it turned out it was Obama's NEW media machine that took the helm, sending a text message that woke me up at 2:48 a.m. CST to announce Joe Biden is the choice. (By the way, I predicted this months ago neener neener)

Obama made us all look silly. He bypassed the news media by letting people know the v.p. choice in an expressly modern way. It's akin to Twittering the choice, or announcing it via Facebook. It was immediate, it was direct and kept Obama in the news all Friday as people discussed who his choice could be. One commenter at Daily Kos said the speculation allowed McCain to "marinate" in the question, keeping his seven houses in the news.

Is it strange that Obama bypassed the media? Today's front pages were almost devoid of Biden news, though the Journal-World, NY Post got it. The Times didn't. The Wall Street Journal didn't. The Tribune speculated. However, a late-breaking AP story quoted an anonymous source saying Biden was the choice.

Bottom line, is it's fascinating how Obama's play to the people gave the message directly to them, at a time when only bloggers and barflies could learn and disseminate the news.

Though not all bloggers appreciated the "3 a.m. phone call:"