Nice PR Move, Rookies

Since Illinios Sen. Barack Obama became "the next big thing" a few months ago, people on the Left and people on the Right have been wondering if he's ready for prime time. He's been a U.S. senator for barely more than two years, so it should come as no surprise when he makes rookie political mistakes.

But with all the campaign cash he has, why must Obama -- the media darling -- flush tons of good will and bring up tons of bad PR over $50,000.

For the past two and a half years, the page has been run by an Obama supporter from Los Angeles named Joe Anthony. At first, that arrangement was fine with the Obama team, which worked with Anthony on the content and even had the password to make changes themselves.

But as the site exploded in popularity in recent months, the campaign became concerned about an outsider having control of the content and responses going out under Obama's name and told Anthony they wanted him to turn it over.

In this new frontier of online campaigning, it's hard to determine the value of 160,000 MySpace friends -- about four times what any other official campaign MySpace page has amassed. But the Obama campaign decided they wouldn't pay $39,000, which is what Anthony said he proposed for his extensive work on the site, plus some additional fees up to $10,000.

MySpace reluctantly stepped in to settle the dispute and decided that Obama should have the rights to control http://www.myspace.com/barackobama as of Monday night, while Anthony had the right to take the contact information for all the friends who signed up while he was in control. That includes the right to tell them exactly how he feels about the Obama campaign.

Anthony referred The Associated Press to his MySpace blog, where he has written that he is heartbroken that the Obama campaign was "bullying" him out of the page he built. He said the candidate has lost his vote.

OK, one can argue that Joe Anthony was trying to jack the Obama campaign. Even if you can convince me a Myspace page is worth $50K -- hey, 160,000 pimple-faced subscribers who might save $10 of their lunch money equals $1.6 mil -- you could never convince me that strong-arming a guy out of 2 1/2 years of devotion would ever read good in the morning paper.

Too late now, but here's how the pros do it: The pros have Barack Obama call Joe Anthony and say, "Hey, Joe, I love what you've done on Myspace. Great job. Thanks for your support. I tell you what, I'm coming through your town in a few weeks. Let's get together for some lunch. I have something I'd like to chat with you about."

Have him come in, smooze him, tell him how much you need his help and that the No. 1 way he could help is to turn the Myspace account over to the campaign. "It would mean the world to me, Joe, because you can't be too careful nowadays about who uses your name. You wouldn't want to hurt me, now would you, Joe? Of course, not, I know you wouldn't. Here's a check for $20,000 for all your trouble setting this thing up. And, hey, I tell you what: When I receive the nomination, you'll be right there in the convention center. As my guest, right, Joe? Great! See you in Denver, Joe. You're the greatest!"

If Obama is the great politician the media hacks tell us, he could have sealed this deal in five minutes. Instead, the rookie's campaign showed it's full of rookies, too, or worse. It's either incompetence or arrogance.

Neither one will get you past her.

P.S. And I won't comment on Myspace's role in all of this. I hear a certain media tycoon has a crack staff of legal attack dogs. Release the hounds!