Posted on: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
 |
|
VOLCANIC ASH
Recapping Obama's candidacy, Hawaii style
By
David Shapiro
|
The 2008 Democratic presidential contest between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton tore through Hawai'i with more excitement than usual because of the presence of a Hawai'i-born candidate and now heads to Ohio and Texas for pivotal showdowns next week.
I thought it would be a good time to recap how we got to where we are, so here are some of the high and low points partly culled from the weekly "flASHbacks" in my Friday blog, which never recaps anything without tongue in cheek:
Obama declared his candidacy on Feb. 10, 2007, in his new home state of Illinois. While he didn't have much to say about being born and raised in Hawai'i, he immediately became the second most written-about and analyzed Punahou kid after Michelle Wie.
Hawai'i did play a role in Obama's decision. Before he announced, he came home for the holidays to commune with the ocean and decide if he'd run. Not a bad move. Who better than the surf gods to tell him which way the wind blows?
After Obama announced that he was running for president, his relative youth and inexperience raised a lot of questions. He answered the criticism by shaking his rattle at detractors.
Obama has shown impressive star power, drawing support from Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney and other film icons. Sometimes it's difficult to tell if he's campaigning for president or an Oscar.
Obama Girl, played by bikini model Amber Lee Ettinger, released a hip video homage to the senator declaring, "I got a crush on Obama." ("I can't wait til 2008 ... Baby, you're the best candidate.") The Clinton campaign couldn't match that even if Hillary gave Bill the OK to let out his inner party boy.
Oprah Winfrey's hosted a star-studded fundraiser for Obama at her Montecito, Calif., home, but the event may have backfired. From Oprah's mansion, the White House looked like a step down to the candidate.
In one of the campaign's most bizarre moments, it was revealed by Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne, that Obama might be a relative of the vice president. If Obama loses, at least he can look forward to inheriting lots of Halliburton stock.
Obama collected $572,490 in royalties from his two books last year. That's modern politics for you. You throw your hat in the ring and it comes back full of cash.
The Obama campaign gained momentum when voters suddenly realized they were tired of 20 years of swapping the presidency back and forth between Bushes and Clintons. It makes sense if you think about it. If we're going to keep dipping into the same political gene pool, surely we can find better DNA.
It wasn't surprising that the local Obama campaign raised almost seven times more than Clinton in Hawai'i, $411,253 to $59,625. If those Punahou folks know anything, it's how to turn a carnival into money.
Obama won three-fourths of Hawai'i Democratic caucus votes and carried all 51 districts, but Clinton diehards like Sen. Colleen Hanabusa hoped uncommitted superdelegates would still give Clinton a majority of local delegates. That's the new political maxim: "No Loser Left Behind."
And my favorite campaign quote of the week, from actress Tina Fey on "Saturday Night Live" about Clinton and the female vote: "Women have come so far as feminists that they don't feel obligated to vote for her just because she is a woman. Women today feel perfectly free to make whatever choice Oprah tells them to."
David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.
| | |
|
|
