Have you received your mass text from Obama yet, announcing his running mate? It's a little weird he would choose Rush Limbaugh for vice president, right? Oh, you think it's Michael Phelps?

Maybe that's because cells all over the country are being plagued by fake announcements for Obama's nomination. The senator's grand plan to embrace new technology while building endless hype around his VP nomination — by announcing his pick via text message — had the unintended result of allowing pranksters to confuse your parents more than cell phones already do.

And you only have yourselves to blame:

Depending how you look at it, the Obama's camp decision to release information about the VP choice over text was either a brilliant strategy of informing supporters while by-passing conventional media, or a stupid ploy to seem cool and hip to the demographic Obama has banked on this entire election — young, first time voters. Many of whom, by the way, spend most of their days texting their various friends and and Facebooking on their iPhones, and are already familiar with the process of voting cellularly from Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.

So the hoax is almost inevitable: Kids will be kids, and when a step-by-step for the gag was presented on both Howard Stern and wonkette, formerly enthusiastic supporters of this new form of communication quickly learned that, as with any use of new technology, there are bound to be some bugs. The Obama camp, of course, is taking it in stride.

Media attention is media attention, after all:

“There is incredible enthusiasm for Barack Obama’s vice presidential announcement and unfortunately some people have used that enthusiasm and sent out hoaxes," said Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who received one herself. “We can assure our supporters these texts did not come from the campaign and their data is secure. Everyone can also rest easy that despite their popularity, Mickey Mouse and Michael Phelps are not on the short list at this time.”

Fine. But just so you know, Michael Phelps is good at winning things.