Hey, Did You Hear? Hawaii Is Part of the USA! No Way!

Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico quoted a Clinton Pollster- and that's all that was needed to set off a tempest in a teapot.

“There was a message that we thought would be conveyed by Martha’s Vineyard that may not be positive,” said Douglas Schoen, a pollster for Clinton's reelection campaign.

Schoen thinks Obama’s Hawaiian vacation may convey a similar message to voters.

“For somebody who has been called ‘elitist,’ going to Hawaii is not exactly going against type,” Schoen said. “I would rather have him going to national parks.”

Of course, never mind Obama's FAMILY lives in Hawaii. Sigh.

I don't know about you guys, but I rarely take a vacation that doesn't involve visiting family.

MOMocrat's Stefania Pomponi Butler writes, "This reminds of when my family moved from Hawaii to California and my new sixth grade teacher said, "Welcome to America!" And "Was your last school taught in English?" To which I wanted to reply, "Are you DUMB?"

People from Hawaii often have to put up a lot of stupid questions and misunderstandings from mainland Americans who should know better. Everyone from Hawaii expects to be asked if they lived in a grass shack at least once, trust me on that one.

To whomever is referring to Hawaii as elitist I have only one question. It's not: How could you forget that Hawaii is a state and therefore the perfect place for a presumptive presidential nominee to vacation? It's not: Didn't you realize that Obama was born in Hawaii, went to school there, and his grandmother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece still live there? It's not: How come Obama doesn't have a family compound, ranch or retreat like McCain? No, it's not any of those things."

I'm not sure how many people realize that living here in California...Hawaii is my Florida.

Although I'm not sure that matters.

You see there are perceptions that abound in parts of our country that places like ONE OF OUR STATES can be "exotic" and "foreign."

You want to talk "exotic" and "foreign?" Grasp touring Arizona in a private jet. Now THAT is exotic!

I can't imagine ever being able to buy myself a plane, but I can use one of the coupons in my LA Times to get that 1/2 off deal to the Big Island for my family and I.

This Week With Barack Obama says, "I blasted Cokie Roberts in yesterday's weekly, "This Week With Barack Obama" because she deserved it.

She put that red-herring, smoking gun word usage out that Obama is vacationing in some "exotic" place, called Hawaii and that he needs to go to Myrtle Beach, which implies "more American".

I have held my tongue on the media using this word exotic, coding for "Obama is not American" enough, but not anymore.

::

I am not going to go on and on about ABC or Cokie Roberts but I am going to examine what is American?

The Olympic Games opened Friday to one of the greatest extravagances we have seen in a very long time. Hats off to the Chinese, they put elegance back into the opening games and take notice if the next summer games are in the United States, "copy the Chinese".

But what caught my eye was the flag bearer, Lopez Lomong, a Sudanese refugee who is a United States citizen. It was not only his story, but that he is now one of us. An American.

So, as I watched these athletes, I started to ask myself, are they too exotic, not American enough, don't fit the bill? Are they?

Their names are exotic, it is not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain, instead their names are:

Khatuna Lorig; Khan "Bob" Malaythong; Mesinee "May" Mangkalakiri; Raju Rai; Geno Espineli; Mike Koplove; Diana Taurasi; Luis Yanez; Sadam Ali; Javier Molina; Rami Zur; Levi Leipheimer; Christian Vande Velde; Hayley Ishimatsu; Mariel Zagunis; Gerek Meinhardt; Katelyn Falgowski; Amy Tran; Raj Bhavsar; Sayaka Matsumoto; Margaux Isaksen; Ken Jurkowski; Bryan Volpenhein; Natasha Kai....etc.

Again, these are Olympians, with names that are not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain. Are they less American because they are representing the United States of America? Is Barack Obama less American because his name is not Smith, Jones, Brown or McCain?"

I think that might hit the nail on the head. Even this suburban white girl has been called "ethnic" when visiting my husband's home state of West Virginia due to my Polish-Catholic heritage.

While there are risks involved with any move a candidate makes, visiting family should never be one of them.

Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest also blogs at Queen of Spain blog

Submitted by Erin Kotecki Vest (view blog

) on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 01:24

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It IS a shame

It IS a shame that candidates get stuck with labels they can't shake no matter what they try. I was impressed to see Obama going to Hawai'i, as it's so far from anything else in the US that its residents must feel left out, very often. How many times do we see on offers or sweepstakes "valid only in continental US" or "except Alaska and Hawai'i"?

I wonder if Obama had gone camping in Kentucky or somewhere, trying to look more 'down-home', he would have been called fake instead, or 'trying to hard'. You can't win sometimes.

I laughed at Stefania's moving-to-California story because I know how that feels. Visitors here in Ireland seem to expect us all to be sitting in front of our thatched cottages, smoking pipes and playing the fiddle, unless of course we're riding the donkey to town. They're disappointed when we turn out to be quite ordinary instead. Well, sorry, but we've got cities and satellite telephones and ipods like the rest of the world, ok? Unfortunately the only thing some people have ever learned about our country came from watching the Quiet Man.

It's oddly comforting to hear that Hawaiians (and many others I'm sure!) get the same thing. And I can't help but wonder how many times *I* put my foot in it, visiting somewhere else! LOL

I hope the poor man had a good vacation, anyhow. I'd need a break from all that crap, too, I think.

Susan

stonyriverfarm.blogspot.com

www.carersgroup.com

Submitted by SusanCarleton on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 06:33

How many days left?

How many days left of the idiocy in this campaign? Please tell me it's all going to be over soon!

Erin - wonderful points! I, too, have been struck by the variety of people representing our country in the Olympics, and I've welcomed the conversations I've had about it. What else is truly American but the melting pot that is competing in China right now? And I bust a gut on the WV "ethnic" comment... I got that, too, but as the "nice but awfully opinionated Jewish girl" my hubby brought home to his folks! Gotta live it to appreciate it!

I'm guessing the McCain camp is grasping at straws if they have to resort to continuing this "unAmerican" thread in their campaigning. I mean, where is the real stuff on the issues? On Obama's policies? Haven't seen much of that.

I'm just gonna close my eyes till it's over...will you let me know when it's safe again to open them? :)

Notions of Identity

Submitted by Laracolvin on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 07:07

Oh, you mean THAT Cokie Roberts?

I first read about this at HuffPo and seriously, I laughed. And I also asked, "Wait. Who said that? Cokie Roberts! Our Cokie Roberts? They mean Cokie Roberts of New Orleans, born to the Boggs family, daughter of Hale and Lindy (her parents are sort of like political royalty down here), and Cokie, a descendant of the Claiborne family (more people who left a mark on history)?"

Whoahoaa! I mean, that Cokie learned to spell elitism in her crib.

I've always thought she was a good journalist, but now I'm wondering was Cokie out to lunch on the Hawaii thing or crazy like a Fox news pundit (Yes, I know she's not on Fox but associated with NPR). She comes from my city, a city that my college friends who attended school down here in NOLA used to leave on break and say "Okay, back to the USA," and that was as late as 1978.

According to cultural historians, it wasn't until the 40s that some "elitist" Louisianians and elite wannabees finally accepted that Louisiana was really part of this nation. They wanted to maintain their French connections and mystique, understand. Very snobby. In fact, talk of secession from America came up again in the 30s from one of our more colorful politicians, The King Fish. The idea didn't sound crazy to him because he heard it all the time, Louisiana was not really American but French and should go its own way.

And we know some people still think of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana as exotic --- "Ooooh, it's got all those black people who know VooDoo and might be Creole. It's got those odd Cajuns, unusual food, and weird graveyards." Uh, huh.

But as you point out, Erin, and what made me laugh when I first read about this, is that Obama has family in Hawaii. He was born in Hawaii and came of age in Hawaii. I guess going home is no longer an American freedom. Is being family-oriented no longer a good thing?

Cokie acknowledged that Obama's grandmother's in Hawaii and that Hawaii is a state (how broadminded of her), but she said Hawaii has the look of some, exotic foreign place. The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. It's just more of the strategy of making Obama look not only elitist, but also un-American and foreign. I'm very disappointed with Cokie's choice of words, and since I consider her to be a good journalist, I can't help but feel she intended the meaning behind them. As I suggested earlier, maybe she's gone crazy like a Fox News pundit.

Nordette is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is hosted on another site at this link.

Submitted by Nordette on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 11:29

Gettin' tired

I'm getting tired of the pundits who get to say whatever they want. I wrote an entry "All-American" about how that phrase is never used to describe Americans who aren't white. Hawaii is a state in this union. It is not a place only inhabited or visited by rich people, in fact, there is even homelessness in Hawaii.

I'm just getting tir-ed of the nonsense and narrowness of people's view and the disctractions from focusing on real issues.

blog.candelariasilva.com

Good and plenty!

Submitted by Candelaria Silva on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 10:27

Gettin' tired

I'm just getting tir-ed of the nonsense and narrowness of people's view and the disctractions from focusing on real issues.

blog.candelariasilva.com

Good and plenty!

Submitted by Candelaria Silva on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 10:27

The man went home. Puh-leeze...

He grew up in Hawaii. His grandmother is there. At this point, I don't think there is anything the man can do in some people's eyes. If he let someone take of picture of him with his ailing grandmother, I suppose someone would say he was exploiting her. If he didn't go to Hawaii at some point, would people say he was neglecting her and the people he grew up with? Get a brain, people. Don't believe the tripe. If you want to criticize or question Obama because you don't like his experience or policy proposals, fine. But this is just nonsense. Cokie Roberts or anyone else in the media who traffics in this silliness needs to feel the wrath of a public that is tired of having its intelligence insulted.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Submitted by Kim Pearson on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 11:22