A little bit of Obama

Republican could cash in on Dem's presidential bid

Political junkies may have noticed the October debut of a new blog on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's possible run for the presidency. If you log onto www.obama2008.org, you'll get there.

But those same political junkies may be surprised when they learn who owns the site.

His name is Henry Treftz, although some may know him by his blogger handle, OneMan.

Treftz is a family man from Aurora who works in the software industry, and he blogs by night, writing out his thoughts on local politics.

And there's another title by which Treftz is known: Republican precinct committeeman. He's been vice chairman of Aurora Township's central committee for three years, covering the southeast corner of Kane County, and has served with that group for seven years.

So how does an official in the local Republican Party come to own a domain name and Web site about a potential Democratic candidate for president? As it turns out, by chance.

"I just wondered if anyone had reserved it, and no one had," Treftz said. "I thought, well, that's worth 20 bucks."

Treftz said in the beginning he expected to use the domain name on T-shirts, sell them through cafepress.com and perhaps turn a few bucks. He didn't see it going much further, though.

"I never thought he'd actually run for president," he said, laughing.

Surprise - the junior senator from Illinois announced Tuesday that he had formed an exploratory committee to look into a run for the nation's top office. And now Treftz finds himself with, potentially, a much sought-after domain name.

The site pulled in roughly three visitors a day before Obama's announcement, but now, Treftz says, he gets about 35 a day.

It's already attracting media attention. In November, the New York Times included Treftz in a story about political Web sites, detailing how many of the most obvious domain names are snatched up years early by people looking for profits. Web addresses like hillary2008.com, rudyforpresident.com and even clintongore2008.com are all registered, mostly by people not connected with the candidates.

And while Treftz doesn't deny that he'd like to make a profit on the domain name, he's taking a more balanced approach, posting thoughtful comments on Obama's chances as a candidate on his blog and linking obama2008.org to it.

In fact, although Treftz said he wouldn't vote for Obama, he has some very complimentary things to say about him.

"You see a lot about what's right with America in him," he said. "He's gotten where he has based on merit and hard work. He was president of the Harvard Law Review, and he went into public service. That's not the normal course and, like him or not, he deserves respect for that."

Despite Obama's recent announcement, Treftz said no one from the senator's camp has contacted him about the domain name. Interestingly, he said he couldn't give the name to Obama if he wanted to - it's currently worth more than the maximum political contribution allowed by law.

Treftz's fellow Republicans have also been quiet, he said. He's never been pressured to use the domain name to attack Obama, which he said was "a pleasant surprise."

Treftz said it would be his preference that Obama's campaign get to use the domain name, if it wants to.

"Really, it came down to geekish curiosity rather than some secret plan to make tons of money," he said. "If they want it, I'm sure we can come to an agreement."

The Beacon News