Skip to content
Categories:

Targeting Obama for his choice in vacation spots

Post date:
Author:

One could, I suppose, criticize Barack Obama for wanting to take a break from the campaign trail. There are just 86 days until the election, and just 15 days until the Democratic National Convention, and one might feel tempted to tell Obama, “You can rest after November 4.”

But it seems Obama isn’t being criticized for taking a break, so much as he’s being criticized for where he’s taking a break. TNR’s Michael Crowley noted:

I know he grew up [in Hawaii] and all. But if Obama’s being smeared as a highfalutin celebrity who is somehow “other” and distant from the American heartland, is Hawaii really the ideal vacation destination? It sounds trivial but such things can resonate…. John Kerry’s staff asked him not to windsurf in the summer of 2004 and he didn’t listen. The results are famous.

I might have counseled a nice cottage beside some Illinois lake with a wholesome name….

Similarly, the Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown had a 1,200-word piece yesterday on the perils of Obama spending eight days in the state of his birth.

After Kerry retreated to Nantucket during the Republican convention, footage of him windsurfing there later surfaced in an attack ad deeming him the candidate who votes “whichever way the wind blows.”

“For somebody who has been called ‘elitist,’ going to Hawaii is not exactly going against type,” [Douglas Schoen, a pollster for Clinton’s reelection campaign] said. “I would rather have him going to national parks.”

I suppose it’s hard to know what kind of superficial concerns voters might take seriously, but all of this seems a little excessive.

Obama was born in Hawaii. He spent much of his childhood in the state, and graduated high school there. His grandmother, who helped raise Obama, still lives there and he’s anxious to spend some time with her.

Stephen Hess, a presidential historian with the Brookings Institution, added, “Anybody who picks on him for going to Hawaii is really looking for something to pick on.”

If the argument is that Obama is somehow lazy for taking a break, let’s not overlook the fact that John McCain has taken almost every weekend off for months.

If the argument is that Obama is elitist for visiting Hawaii, let’s not overlook the fact that McCain is extraordinarily wealthy, flies on his wife’s private jet, and has multiple homes around the world.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, mocked Obama for having attended the “Punahou School, a coeducational college preparatory day school, from 1971 to 1979. The school campus covers 76 acres at the edge of the Manoa Valley.” Apparently, the argument is, people shouldn’t vote for Obama now because he received a scholarship to a pretty exclusive high school a few decades ago.

If the RNC really wants to judge a candidate on the exclusivity and acreage of his/her high school, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that McCain “attended his own fancypants prep school, Episcopal High School, which sits on 130 acres. Something tells me he wasn’t on scholarship, either.”

Comments

  • J

    says:

    Hard to know what kind of superficial concerns voters might take seriously perhaps, but not so hard to see what kind of superficial concerns leading elements of the media would like to concentrate on.

  • Danp

    says:

    As I read about where Obama should vacation, I keep thinking about the reporters who go to Crawford every few months and stand in front of that broken down shed on Bush’s property. How presidential!

  • boc

    says:

    Someday, people will be just happy we have a thinking, thoughtful, non-shameful, not embarrassing president. And it won’t be McSame.

  • rege

    says:

    Look if Obama wants to avoid criticism all he has to do is hold a fundraiser.

    President Bush’s visit Thursday will cap off a rare week of presidential politics for Hawaii.

    With only four electoral votes, Hawaii usually gets little attention by presidential candidates, but both a Democratic challenger, Ohio’s Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and the incumbent Republican president have Hawaii on this week’s “to-do” lists.

    […]

    Bush is expected in town Thursday after his weeklong swing through Asia and Australia.

    The president will be making his first visit to Hawaii, keeping unbroken a string of presidential visits stretching back to Franklin Roosevelt.

    I’m sure that’ll quiet critics on the right. 🙂

  • Freedom Fry

    says:

    The RNC’s job is to attack whatever Obama chooses to do. If he had gone somewhere else, he would have been “pandering” or “throwing his grandmother under the bus.” This is what Republicans do and if Obama allowed his every move to be controlled by what the RNC might say, then we wouldn’t him as president.

  • Mudge

    says:

    The test is for McCain to take a week off in the Canal Zone and see what the press has to say. Colombia is close.

    Freedom Fry is right. The RNC/McCain campaign criticizes whatever Obama does, the press parrots it, and they see what sticks. Then they all barbeque.

  • Lew Scannon

    says:

    I guess since the Republicans can’t stand on their own failed policies, they have no other choice than to attack Obama for superficial reasons to distract the public from said failed policies.

  • invisible_hand

    says:

    damn obama for visiting his grandmother!
    presidents should learn to have loyalty to NO ONE except for AMERICA!

  • Megalomania

    says:

    To quietly meditate is something to respect, and one should appreciate how it is done. Obama seems to be ready to reflect and perhaps rethink again about change. And here we go again; Mainstream Media in its complicity to protect McCain will fuel the fire of confusion to the electorate.

    There are few comments that flow well but when I come across a one I like to single it out and express my support for it so everyone understands where my position is in the political soup and debate of our time. Moreover, I save them on word and refer back occasionally to them creating my own quality of reason and reflect if my own choices have changed because they do. What Joey said was on target for me.

    Joey said and that is what McCain said
    “When he tries to “rile the audience up” he gives an embarrassing performance
and that is what he is
a performance
and a very bad one. Obama’s challenge is with a complicit media waiting for anything they can jump him for.”

    I could not say it better, and reflects my believes and concerns.

    With that said, isn’t amazing how Mainstream Media will go on, on, and on, make claim that the electorate is in a sea of possible change. Here, you and I can be persuaded by these News squares, those windowed political song birds that analyze every word that is said and tells what we should think and what some one else says we should think.

    Pounding daily, hourly, how our perspective nominees change their minds and make that single shift in reasoning, like Obama may fine tune what he is thinking, or McCain turns around and says the opposite of what he said before, like stops joking about inflating tires when it is established to be a simple fact of truism.

    Seems like its something insecure or it should be an impossible ideal to think in a different way after rethinking.

    My God, our whole basis of a so called Republic and Democracy in a free enterprise is based on an “THE AT WILL” principal. Business can change their mind at will. But he, the politician can’t. Though we the electorates have the possibility to shift like winds of mass media persuasion. Of course the balance is like in our economy now; all the “roulette wheels” are loaded. To be sure they are. That’s the sick part of our culture we are gambling too much for the future but the electorate should have the “benefit of the house”.

    The real funny thing is that most of these Mainstream Journalist seem to know what America needs but America is surrounded by the grief of war and a pitiful economy. Must be because we are in the Summer solstice. What is striking is that all of them from the sweet personality Mika in Morning Joe with support from the trillion dollar behind the scenes deal maker Andrea Mitchell, now a rising star Rachael Maddow, known to be a Gay lesbian like Ellen, or Laura Ingram hard nosed so balance she can do political summer salts too. If you don’t remember what they are it is a simple series of forward tumbles. All designed to confuse America.

    http://www.ibeatyou.com/competition/d102d2/most-summer-salts/entry/a623d1/most-summer-salts

    Why do I use this analogy of tumbling? Just like our economy is tumbling, coiling down, America is in a “Replacement Economy” experts will not admit to it. An official Bear market is declared, but that is not a recession? Of course its not, it worse.

    Ladies and gentleman of America this not a new term, it’s called a depression, or we need to rethink and retool, big time change, laughingly many might call it the compression cycle. I giggle again, here we are going from the four stroke engine from the compression state, to something else, many, call the new wave. Where the hell did T Boone Pickens come from? Is this another oil Ross Parrot?

    Isn’t it weird our media slam the term leadership, but here we have a president that decides to carry America into war where we our basic resource, oil, is actually supplied by the enemy, the Arab Wahabbi who sell us seventy percent of what we need. Sheesh. So, funny with the finest technology in the world the most educated culture and so called responsible electorate we are in such an ass backward situation with the complicit media saying pounding away, how did we get here? Listen to the commentary


    Giving a good laugh at this horrible relationship of hypocrisy all the while wondering why the anger does not hit the streets more than it is, is, the curious thing. You can see I am having fun with Clintons theory of what is, is. Actually there is something there to think about, especially if Rush Limbaugh talks about the theory of “IS” or Hannity makes his axioms known about the theory of “WAS”.

    This all is very telling; so far the Boomer crowd is tolerating this grief, worse tolerating this whole thirty percent crowd that thinks ass backwards and cheers for it. All the while the electorate is buying up Remington and Browning automatic pumps. There is a whole crowd out there collecting the fine arts in amour piecing firearms. The crime is this complicity by the media, licensed by the electorate to fulfill responsibility to encourage the capture, investigation, and conviction of perpetrators such as, now obviously, the Bush and Company.

    What is encouraged is a massive perpetration of gun pointing murder, killing, constant reloading with quick action clips with runs of terminator with all the fine arts of disgusting theater poured into screens and games the to influence the electorate and the incent young that its cool to kill. Extraordinary.

    But, they, MSNBC, CNN, FOX news, characterize this culture of corruption as distinguished men and women of government as they appear, patriotic, but we all know they all are the magicians and the masterminds of lies, deceptions, and governing principals that have ripped apart the very core of the Constitution. Worse they work together to create a bounce in the direction they want, not what Ameica needs.

    Today they call them Pre-emptive Republicans, stopping a problem before it happens. What problem? All done with intended consequences, with the benefits of the electorate tax dollar via the Federal Reserve, and the resources of American blood recycled four and five times. It’s amazing who these people are and that they cheer for this. To profiteer in oil.

  • Mary

    says:

    Here in Hawaii it was reported that one of the reasons Mr. Obama and his family have come is to see his aging grandmother. Since my husband just did the same thing with my daughter last month, from Maui to Arizona, it rings true for me. Aloha.

  • The Answer is Orange

    says:

    I might have counseled a nice cottage beside some Illinois lake with a wholesome name
.

    Yeah, you have to be careful when you plan a lakeside visit in Illinois. If you don’t watch out you wind up spending a week on the shores at Lake Titsnass.

    Calling these people brainless bimbos is an insult to brainless bimbos.

    Anyhoo, the push-back is obvious. “Senator Obama is visiting his grandmother. If people think there’s something wrong with that, so be it.”

  • Doctor Biobrain

    says:

    These people are fools. Hawaii may be expensive, but I’ve never had any sort of connotation of it being elitist to go there. If anything, I think it reflects well on him, as Hawaii has positive connotations as a paradise you win on a gameshow and a place you’d like to see detectives solve crimes in. Wanting to vacation in Nantucket is elitist. But everyone wants to go to Hawaii. Even its name is cool. And the fact that he grew up there seals the deal.

    This is just like the “celebrity” attack on Obama. The assumption is that if you can find any angle to attack Obama on, then you must have found a good attack. But people LOVE celebrities, or they wouldn’t be celebrities, and businesses pay millions to associate celebrities with their products; even in red states. Similarly, Hawaii isn’t seen as elitist. Had he gone to the French Riveria or perhaps one of those fancy Bahama islands you only see on Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, he might be in trouble. But everyone loves Hawaii.

  • ericfree

    says:

    There’s a carefully crafted image of Hawaii as the land of ukuleles, grass skirts, tourists and surfers that goes back to the 20s. The reality is that it’s home to a vibrant polyglot culture that’s composed of Eastern (China, Japan), Western and Polynesian influences. It’s as American as any other state, but its distance and unique history give it an identity unlike any other.

    Obama has the air of being from everywhere simultaneously; although he has no Hawaiian blood, if his face was slightly broader and he had a little more poi-induced weight, he’d look like a native Hawaiian.

    The rest of this country could use more of the true Hawaiian culture; unfortunately, we have a history of acquiring “other” cultures, through immigration, conquest or both, yet still holding them at a distance from white Protestant culture as “colorful” and “picturesque.”

    Upshot: I think it’s healthy for the U.S. that he’s from Hawaii and is going back home to a place with such a positive culture, in spite of many reasons to feel less than positive toward the rest of the U.S. I only wonder if a lot of my, and Obama’s, fellow countrymen feel the same way.

  • T Foreman

    says:

    ‘Scuse me, but where is it that the GOP is criticizing Obama’s vacation? The method of floating something the Democrats say they SPECULATE or WISH the Republicans WILL be or MIGHT be saying so they can attack it is getting a bit weary. Nobody in their right mind would begrudge Obama a respite, and everyone knows he lived there.
    The thing that intrigues me is the acknowledgment that Obama’s grandmother is still alive. She has been conspicuously absent from mention in the campaign. There is no information about her anywhere, and references to her existence and location seem to have been scrubbed from view. In much the same manner, all references to his mother’s residence on Mercer Island, Washington, when she was in high school have been purged. Is it because it is another upscale venue (now the home of Microsoft’s Paul Allen) that does not fit neatly into Obama’s egalitarian biography?
    Punahoe, by the way, is really an exclusive school, attended by the scions of the original missionaries and businesspeople in Hawaii.

  • Insane Fake Professor

    says:

    Senator Sell Out His White Relatives is clearly only visiting Hawaii to give the false impression that he cares about the grandma he viciously attacked for political gain among black voters. Women, especially we grandmothers, are not fooled. This trip stinks.

  • tosser

    says:

    Count me in the camp that scratched my head and said “WTF” when I heard Obama was going on vacation with only 3 months to go in the campaign.

    Here’s some advice for Dem candidates:

    You’ll enjoy frollicking in the sun a lot more if you do it after you win the election.

    Just ask Ned Lamont.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Dr BB is right. This isn’t anything like Kerry’s windsurfing. As I implied in my comments about the coverage of the Edwards scandal, people like to ‘live vicariously’ through celebrities, that’s why we have celebrities. (Again, this is not a criticism, we all do it at least a little.)

    Okay, guys, ‘show of hands’ time:

    How many of you have ever wanted to go windsurfing?

    Now, how many of you have watched HAWAII 5-0 or LOST and dreamed of going to Hawaii — if you haven’t, don’t live there, and can’t afford the time or money for the trip?

  • Joe Yowsa

    says:

    Barky will lose because he’s a neophyte, hasn’t accomplished a damn thing in life, does endless gaffes (57 states?), is ignorant of history and geography, and has America-hating pals. 🙁

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    tosser and CB:
    Campaigning for President is hard work. (So is being President, which is why I’ve never understood criticisms of Presidents taking ‘time off,’ going back to Eisenhower’s golfing.)

    Obama is vacationing now, but McCain is so desperate he doesn’t dare to. Sure, Obama might temporarily sacrifice a point or two in the tracking polls, but he’ll get them back.

    But think a minute, and imagine how exhausted “that wrinkly, white-haired guy” will be and look in September or October.

  • TheNumantine

    says:

    I guess “Hawaii” sounds elitism to you folks back East. Hey, what was with that Easter trip to the US Virgin Islands? Now that sounds very elitist to us out here on the West Coast. And then we had the Clintons doing their vacationing in the Dominican Republic–not even part of the US.

    Obama is spending time with family–it’s something we respect out here in the West.

    I do wonder though if Obama might use Hawaii as a jumping off point for a surprise trip to China. I hear that Chicago is putting a bid to host the Olympics. Perhaps some lobbying of the IOC by the future US President might help?

  • ericfree

    says:

    Wow, the McCain trolls are out today. Maybe they’re trying to pile up points for their own vacations. They could use a little mahalo, but, unlike Obama, I don’t think they’d fit in.

  • Linda in Oregon

    says:

    A one-week vacation is nothing compared to McCain’s almost-every-weekend off after the grueling schedule of one campaign event a day all week.
    Obama gets to vacation with his family, visit his grandma and sister, and focus on his campaign from a distance for a few days.
    He will come back stronger than ever, and then it will be downhill from that point. I am so ready for the President who will restore so much of what I miss about America!

  • Dan

    says:

    Everything Obama does is “elitist” because the media has decided to smear him as an elitist. If he goes to a store and buys a can of campbell’s chunky clam chowder, then eating clam chowder is elitist. Meanwhile John McCain is down-home Jess’ Folks, so when he jets between his multiple mansions, he’s just an average fella takin’ it easy.

  • Pockmark Notorious

    says:

    I enjoyed the part where the pollster suggest “national parks” would be a better vacation destination. Correct me if I’m wrong…but doesn’t Hawaii have a national park or two?

  • CraigM

    says:

    Cokie Roberts, Villager, on “This Week”:

    “…going off this week to a vacation in Hawaii does not make any sense whatsoever. I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii, and I know Hawaii is a state. But it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach, you know, if he’s going to take a vacation at this time.”

    Say hi to Grandma for me, future President of the United States!

  • D

    says:

    Obama is so slick, what a playa! He’s on vacation while he’s pimped out Hillary and her husband to keep pushin’ him up while he’s gone. I agree with ludacriz on this one. It’s Hillary that’s in a fairy tale.

  • D

    says:

    …Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer . . Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president . . Hillary hated on you, so that b**** is irrelevant . . Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what? . . if you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut! . . and all you other politicians trying to hate on my man .

    Go Obama! Show em how it is Yo!

  • owlbear1

    says:

    “Attack your opponent with your biggest weakness.”

    Classic Republican strategy.

    Of course, it only works because of the Fascist Media Bias.

  • Jinchi

    says:

    How many of you have ever wanted to go windsurfing?

    You do realize that windsurfing is a very cheap and extremely common option for anybody who lives near the coast or a lake, don’t you? It’s not exactly a dream excursion like climbing Everest or traveling to the South Pole.

  • William

    says:

    It’s all BS, Grandpa isn’t going to win and Myrtle Beach is for people from Ohio, Count me in as non-reactionary! Everyone seems to have a crystal ball or contact with the spirit world here, or most likely they’re just increasingly neurotic about politics.. How anyone could be still transfixed and critical after the primary, well that hasn’t been clinically documented yet. Don’t worry! Obama is going to win. If he doesn’t it won’t be because he took a vacation in Hawaii, it may be because racism still balks stupid white people from Ohio from making intelligent decisions about the future of this sagging and indebted nation! And if he doesn’t, we’re moving to Spain baby. Woohoo! Really, keeping informed is one thing but the obsession isn’t healthy here! Get out, go hiking, volunteer for the campaign if you can’t shake it off!

    ; – )

  • Enoch Root

    says:

    They don’t care that it’s Hawaii.

    They only care that the image of Kerry windsurfing was helpful to them, so they want to hallucinate something similar for Obama.

    They’re doing this because they are stupid. Stupid people try to help out their friends by saying stupid things. Smart people say smart things to their friends in private so their friends won’t be stupid any more. But this friendship is based on stupidity, so therefore they say stupid things in public.

  • Jinchi

    says:

    I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii, and I know Hawaii is a state. But …

    Statements like that really drive home the point that pundits believe that there are “real” Americans, and then there are a lot of other people who somehow ended up with the right to vote in our elections. Hawaii is a state. It’s people are Americans. Just because they don’t live like Cokie doesn’t make them some sort of exotic foreign tribe.

  • kth

    says:

    Windsurfing is, contrary to the Bush campaign and their useful idiots in the press corps, a perfectly ordinary activity. The Texas City dike, on the mainland side of the fetid waters of Galveston Bay, in the shadow of a string of oil refineries, is full every weekend with cars towing windsurfing rigs (or those little catamarans, same diff).

  • Dave S.

    says:

    A “NEW” BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO REPLACE THE FORGERY HE POSTED ON HIS WEBSITE.

    He’s in Hawaii to try to somehow get around his forged Hawaiian Birth Certificate. Maybe his sister or grandmother have a connection to get a new one. His grandmother was a bank higher-up in Hawaii.

    BO’s real name is Barry Soetoro and he’s a muslim from Indonesia. He is ineligible to be president.

    There’s a whole lot of research and technical data that has gone into this. The BC is a proven forgery. The Indonesian school records have been found.

    The Republicans are sitting on all of this until after the convention, then all hell will break loose. They don’t want to run against Hillary, they want Obama.

    For more info go to http://www.noquarterusa.net. They list other sites that also have this information, like Texas Darlin.

  • Dave S.

    says:

    A “NEW” BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO REPLACE THE FORGERY HE POSTED ON HIS WEBSITE.

    He’s in Hawaii to try to somehow get around his forged Hawaiian Birth Certificate. Maybe his sister or grandmother have a connection to get a new one. His grandmother was a bank higher-up in Hawaii.

    BO’s real name is Barry Soetoro and he’s a muslim from Indonesia. He is ineligible to be president.

    There’s a whole lot of research and technical data that has gone into this. The BC is a proven forgery. The Indonesian school records have been found.

    The Republicans are sitting on all of this until after the convention, then all hell will break loose. They don’t want to run against Hillary, they want Obama.

    For more info go to http://www.noquarterusa.net. They list other sites that also have this information, like Texas Darlin.

  • Dave S.

    says:

    A “NEW” BIRTH CERTIFICATE TO REPLACE THE FORGERY HE POSTED ON HIS WEBSITE.

    He’s in Hawaii to try to somehow get around his forged Hawaiian Birth Certificate. Maybe his sister or grandmother have a connection to get a new one. His grandmother was a bank higher-up in Hawaii.

    BO’s real name is Barry Soetoro and he’s a muslim from Indonesia. He is ineligible to be president.

    There’s a whole lot of research and technical data that has gone into this. The BC is a proven forgery. The Indonesian school records have been found.

    The Republicans are sitting on all of this until after the convention, then all hell will break loose. They don’t want to run against Hillary, they want Obama.

    For more info go to http://www.noquarterusa.net. They list other sites that also have this information, like Texas Darlin.

  • Jennifer

    says:

    Do us a favor and go away, Dave S.

    So far we’ve been successful in containing the lunacy of Hillary dead-enders to only a few sites. Such as noquarter.

    You’re breaking quarantine.

  • gymrat

    says:

    My wife, who is from Hawaii, had the following comment when I read her the story.
    “He’s going home for god’s sake! He’s being a good “Merkin”, and going home to see his family when he has a spot of vacation. People forget that Hawaii is “”home”” to a lot of people”

  • Estamm

    says:

    Uh, Dave. First, lets not repeat ourselves too much, huh? And the bold font doesn’t really make your message any more valid. The desperation on the right is truly amusing.

  • Harry R. Sohl

    says:

    Oh, if only Kerry hadn’t decided (against advice even!) to go windsurfing! He’d be President now.

    It simply forced, forced I say!, the media to endlessly portray the Democratic candidate as an elitist, out-of-touch, effete, foreign-looking, presumptuous, “whichever way the wind blows” loser.

    And we all know the villagers would never want to do that, much less manufacture any excuse to “propel the propaganda” regardless.

    Please Barrack, leave Hawaii and I’m certain you’ll be safe. Right? Right?!

    After all, the results are famous.

  • Rob_in_Hawaii

    says:

    I live here in the Aloha State. I even taught at Punahou high school, Obama’s alma mater, for a couple of summer sessions. (The prep school caters to the children of the middle class and gives away lots of scholarships.) So, despite the fact that I eke out a living as an adjunct college lecturer, drive a 13 year-old Toyota with 180K miles on it, and live in a tiny 2BR rented house, that makes me a fucking elitist for being here. My family on the Mainland will finally be proud.

    Like 1.5 million other people of all races, cultures, and creeds, I make my home in the greatest place on Earth, a place where the spirit of Aloha, the cultural gift of the Native people of this paradise, is alive and well. The rest of the country might take a lesson or two from us.

    Obama and his family are from here; some still live here. He’s visiting family, connecting with his roots, and taking the kids to the beach for a few days. He’s also politicking (I went to a rally with 4,000 others Friday) and he’s raising money for his campaign. It’s not all down time.

    Okay then, I know it’s not keeping with the Aloha spirit, but the asshole media jerks who perpetuate this elitist meme and the dickhead McCain trolls can kiss my haole-boy ass and go fuck themselves over their “concern” about where Obama vacations.

  • libra

    says:

    Tourette Dave, @44, 45 and 46,

    no quarter USA? Isn’t that Deranged Larry Johnson’s website? The same Larry Johnson, who had promised proof (video?) of Sinclair’s (and Obama’s) sins in limousine? And the same Larry Johnson who had the tape of Michelle railing against “whitey”. Well, maybe he didn’t actually have the tape but he knew someone who did. Well, maybe he didn’t actually know anyone who had the tape but the tape existed, for sure, and he was gonna unveil it, any minute. Well, maybe the tape didn’t, actually, exist, but his buddies at CIA were trying to produce it. Any minute now, we’ll see and hear it.

    *That* Larry Johnson (who, BTW, looks and acts as is someone took a power saw to shape his head; a straight tree trunk and no room for brain)? That Larry Johnson has an anti-black trismus (lock-jaw) to motivate him (and, possibly, ruined dreams of a high position in Clinton govt). And I’m sure he’ll be *as able* to produce Obama’s “real” birth certificate as he was in producing the “Michelle tape” and the Sinclair “proof”.

    I just hope that poor schmucks who read that website, like Tourette Dave above, haven’t given the Johnson crook all their money.

  • tosser

    says:

    Libra:

    “I just hope that poor schmucks who read that website, like Tourette Dave above, haven’t given the Johnson crook all their money.”

    Don’t worry, Libra, I’m sure their bank accounts have already been cleaned out by the Prince of Nigeria.

  • Prup (aka Jim Benton)

    says:

    Enough is enough! I don’t lose my temper often, but I just visited “No Quarter.” My apologies for saying this for what must be the 10th time, and for the use of bold to this extent — and enough of you know this is not my style, but…

    How can we trust Hillary Clinton, or give her or Bill a spot to speak at the convention until she publicly and loudly denounces libelous creeps like these are demands that they stop spreading this sort of BULLSHIT in her name. She HAS to demand they removes her picture from their website, tell them to ‘cease and desist’ and state that they in no way speak for her, or in her name, and to demand that they do NOT come to Denver in an attempt to influence the convention.

    Until now, I was willing to accept that her name be placed in nomination without being withdrawn before the ballot but unless she either does the above, or announces her name will be withdrawn — and, ideally, offers to be one of the seconders of Obama — I do not trust her and Bill not to attempt to stampede the Convention.

  • Max Renn

    says:

    Rob_in_Hawaii notes:

    I live here in the Aloha State. I even taught at Punahou high school, Obama’s alma mater, for a couple of summer sessions. (The prep school caters to the children of the middle class and gives away lots of scholarships.) So, despite the fact that I eke out a living as an adjunct college lecturer, drive a 13 year-old Toyota with 180K miles on it, and live in a tiny 2BR rented house, that makes me a fucking elitist for being here. My family on the Mainland will finally be proud.

    Like 1.5 million other people of all races, cultures, and creeds, I make my home in the greatest place on Earth, a place where the spirit of Aloha, the cultural gift of the Native people of this paradise, is alive and well. The rest of the country might take a lesson or two from us.

    This point is really germaine to a central fact about a LOT of folks on the glibertarian and hard right in the US. They deeply resent you, Rob, and think that you should not be able to ‘eke out’ your living and rent in Hawaii, that this is an immoral lifestyle in and of itself. Hawaii is for their rich golfing buddies. This is one reason that glibertarians and hard righties hate academia: it requires that smart, not-wealthy people live in great places that these ‘eggheads’ don’t really deserve to be in. It’s a prevailing attitude about places like Santa Barbara, CA, the SF Bay Area, etc. That ‘liberals’ with no car dealerships get to enjoy places like this makes glibertarians really mad.

    My family happened to buy some property in a very desirable place in the 1930s, and we still have it. The number of folks who really don’t like it when they find out about it are uniformly conservative assholes. I got into quite an argument with a Jenna Bush clone on Fisher’s Island once about how only people who are rewarded for their John Gault-like Atlas-hattery should be able to have a place in such a community. It isn’t enough, Rob, that you make sacrifices to live in Hawaii-these sacrifices make you both a loser and a threat to glibs and righties.

  • -ck-

    says:

    From the Office of Hawaiian Affairs website —

    http://oha.org/

    Obama says America looking for aloha spirit

    Described as “keiki o ka ‘āina”, Hawai‘i-born Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama told hundreds gathered at Ke‘ehi Lagoon Beach Park Friday afternoon that he carries with him on the campaign trail the lessons he’s learned growing up in the islands.

    “I try to explain to them about the aloha spirit,” Obama said. “And it’s that spirit that I am absolutely convinced is what America is looking for right now.”

    Now a U.S. senator from Illinois, the Punahou graduate said he explains to people that the aloha spirit is about helping people in need.

    “That we look out for one another. That we deal with each other with courtesy and respect. And most important when you come from Hawai‘i that you start to understand what’s on the surface, what people look like, that doesn’t determine who they are,” said Obama, who was joined on stage by his wife, Michelle.

    He went on to say that “the power and strength of the person, the ability of people from everywhere 
 whether they’re Black or White, whether they’re Japanese-Americans or Korean-Americans or Filipino-Americans or whatever they are – they’re just Americans.

    And that all of us can work together, all of us can join together to create a better country.”

    His use of Hawaiian values in his speech brought rave reviews from Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians listening in an audience made up of hundreds who waited for hours under the hot sun for Obama to appear.

  • JB

    says:

    Sheesh!
    Cokie “Kookie” Roberts complained about it this morning on This Week.
    What is wrong with going to Hawaii? He lived there as a kid right?
    Cokie is such an elitist asshat. How do these people retain employment when they say the most incredibly stupid things.
    The inside the beltway pundits are a very strange group of people to say the least.

  • Billy Bob Tweed

    says:

    Maybe it’s time to start publicizing Cokie Roberts’ education, salary, home address(es) and photos of her cottage(s), and ask “real Muricans” who’s the real elitist, and where does the pot get off calling the kettle, erm, black?

  • Hannah

    says:

    Hint to Obama campaign: release a photo or two of you with your beloved grandmother, making sure it’s clear that you are in Hawaii, your home state. Home… the place many people like to go when on vacation, to see relatives and friends. And the Obama girls get to visit their GREAT grandmother. Very special.

    As for the timing: why not? Congress is out of session and the Olympics are taking up a lot of air time. And it’s not like Obama is totally out of touch and unable to respond should something come up.

    As Rob at #52 said, Obama is doing some campaigning. Thanks for your post, Rob. Well said.

  • nathalie

    says:

    Maybe the grandmother doesn’t want her picture published. Even if he did publish the picture he would be attacked for it! It doesn’t matter either way, the GOP and people like Corky Roberts know only to attack people no matter what.

  • jackalope

    says:

    For christ’s sake, this isn’t the Bush family where they all get to be President, or the Mccain family where they all get to be Senators and Admirals. Getting nominated for President is a REALLY BIG DEAL for Obama’s family, so if he wants to travel to Hawaii to share it with his home-bound Grandmother (because his mother is DEAD), then maybe the morons in the media could try not to be jerks about it.

    This is just pathetic. McCain’s designer Italian clothes are treated like homespun, but Obama’s visit to his grandmother and the state he grew up is treated like one of McCain’s vacations to Keating’s private villa in the Bahamas.

  • ericfree

    says:

    Wow! again. I’ve been missing this. What a great thread. Thanks to nearly everybody, especially #52 Rob (a true Hawaiian), #53 good ol’ libra (don’t know why she’s so hard on me), and Max @#56. So glad to hear the report on Barry’s Hawaiian speech. I wish I’d been there. This is America, not McThing confusing dollars w/bucks to make ducks and volunteering his wife to a crowd of bikers. And a special thanks to Dave S., who made the night. Triple McBucks points!

  • Chamay0

    says:

    This promotion of Obama being foreign, different, lacking judgment is not new. This is the message the republican base is hoping will stick and get Americans not to look at McCain with all his various short comings. Unfortunately, this will not work. A good deal of us did not graduate from college with a C grade average. Some of us even have street smarts. We can spot stupid when we see, hear or smell it. This attempt of McCain’s reek of stupid. Why should we see a hidden topic in Obama going home to see his grandmother in Hawaii (hello, Hawaii is one of our states)? It might have worked better if he was as rich as McCain, but his not. So props to Obama for visiting his grandmother like a good grandson should do. He hasn’t seen her for 18 or 19 months. It’s about time.

  • libra

    says:

    ericfree, @64,

    Have I been hard on you? If I have, I apologise; it was unintentional (unless you’re a frequent flier on Freaky Johnson’s No Quarter). I like your postings; in fact, I like most people’s postings (though miss Maria and Zeitgeist the most, when they disappear for a spell). Just chalk whatever barbs you feel I directed at you to my lack of manners (I am, after all, a half-Polack) and to English being my second language still (though not as much as it had been, 35 yrs ago). OK? Peace?

  • libra

    says:

    This promotion of Obama being foreign, different, lacking judgment is not new. This is the message the republican base is hoping will stick […] — Chamay0, @65

    It’s John Sidney (The Third And Least) and the Repub base *now*, but Mark Penn “wrote the book” (for Hillary originally, but now adopted by the fRight wing) on the technique long ago. Someone here (on TCBR, though on another “thread”) today linked to a Politico article, which previews an article from the September issue of the Atlantic on the subject. There was nothing in there that I (and, probably, most of the non-DLC “left”) hadn’t suspected but it sure confirms our suspicions. Much like the shenanigans of the Bush/Cheney Cabal; we kinda-sorta “knew” they were bastards and crooks, but it’s nice to have the confirmation coming from the various investigative offices…

  • Eleanor Holt

    says:

    Did anyone mention he is visiting his grandmother who is getting along in years and Senator Obama knows he needs to be close especially at this time in her life?

  • Marylaine Block

    says:

    It seems to me that instead of responding one by one to each Republican hissyfit that it’s time to expose and mock their whole umbrage machine. If they’re going to practically faint in horror any time somebody says something true but unflattering about their candidates, like some Victorian spinster, how about we start handing out smelling salts to the people who quote the latest GOP hissyfit lines, including political reporters? (We could start with Bob Schieffer, who didn’t feel that a 4-star general who led a successful war effort had any right to suggest that McCain’s honorable service was enough to qualify him for commander-in-chief.) If we hand out the smelling salts every single time (with resulting YouTube coverage), do you think that the mockery might disable their entire strategy?

  • peterg22

    says:

    …Carrie Budoff Brown had a 1,200-word piece yesterday .. eight days in the state of his birth

    It really must be the Silly Season I guess when a politician’s criticised for going on vacation: I never thought of Hawaii as particularly controversial though. Bearing in mind that August still has 2 weeks to run can we maybe look forward to hearing other newsworthy items shich as “what kind of toilet tissue does Obama use?”

  • truth

    says:

    Well after reading the first half of Obama Nation over the weekend I would guess that he has decided to try to find some truth to his past. For me it is a problem that 46% of America think that it may be okay to elect to the highest office in the U.S. a person who has a hard time with the facts of his life. Who appears to be so in denial about his roots. What happended to integrity. I mean at least McCain was only married to one woman at a time and if what is written in the book I just attempted to read (before I got more disgusted than I already had been) I am not sure how many women that Obama Sr. was married to at once or if he was even legally married. I know that a person should be given a chance to rise above their upbringing. Once again thats rise above not burrow your head in the sand and pretend that it never happened or that you are unsure of the facts. If you can’t even figure out your family tree do I really want you protecting the future of mine.

  • alberta treadway

    says:

    Trueth said ” At least mccain was married to one woman at a time” Ha Ha! Mccain was cheating on his first wife with Cindy, a heiress he later married for her millions! He used her millions to run for the Senate! He used her millions to jet around to his campagne stops in this election! I don’t know what kind of trash you were readying, but believe me if Obama was a adultress or married to more than one woman it would have been vetted by now an on the news, an he would not have been the Demacratic nomanee! Thats just crazy talk. The man I want protecting my future is one who graduated at the top of his class and show superior intelligence like Obama has! Not one who graduated at the bottom of his class and on was able to stay in the military an continue to be a pilot after so many wrecks and mistakes, and bad behaviors with women , like John Mccain did simply because of who his Dad, and granddad was in the Military standing! I’d rather have a man who mother had to use food stamps and know the difficulty’s of the average person————–Than the man who cheated on his wife, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who got a free ride because of his family name, Who married the millionair he was cheating on his first wife with! Where in any one’s book tell you that John Mccain knows what morals are or how the needy gets by every day of their lifes! My mom died just lately, and every on this blog probaly has lost someone! So I think we all know how important it is to visit as much as possible with a 80 year old grandma, like Obama is doing in Hawaii! Bless their souls, I hope their visit is fruitful, full of love, and remembrance, because she won’t have many more visits with her wonderful grandson Obama who is about to make American History with the first Black/White Man who came from the Lowest of our income bracket and pulled himself up to the American dream, of becomeing presidsent of these United States, and hopefully move this country past racism that has caused it not to be able to fully unite itself all these years!

  • todd

    says:

    “For somebody who has been called ‘elitist,’ going to Hawaii is not exactly going against type,” [Douglas Schoen, a pollster for Clinton’s reelection campaign] said. “I would rather have him going to national parks.”

    Hawaii has two National Parks (Haleakala and the Hawaii Volcanoes).

    Cokie is the leader in the idiot parade of right-wing shills.

  • Dan (in Hawaii)

    says:

    Actually, in addition to Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes, there’s the “City of Refuge,” Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historic Park, near Kailua-Kona, which is also under the National Park Service. I have an annual pass to the three of ’em.

    As far as going to Jakarta, well, Indonesia is an important emerging economy, which is also confronted with the problem of radical Islam. Bush went there a couple years ago, and I suspect if Obama becomes president, the Indonesians would welcome both him as a person, and improved relations with the US.