I just arrived back home (on the Big Island of Hawaii) after spending three days in Honolulu at the Kahala resort. The agenda? The opportunity to get up close and personal with the next President of the United States at a $2300 per person fundraiser, one of the only campaign events scheduled during Senator Obama's vacation in his home state of Hawaii.
The hotel was buzzing the day before in anticipation of hosting the event. We had fun playing 'spot the Secret Service agents', and watching hotel staff feverishly plan the staging. Each morning the local paper (Honolulu Advertiser) and local TV news recounted the daily events of the Obamas out and about, Barack playing golf, Barack and his girls on the beach, Michelle and Barack eating burgers in the park. And lots of talk of the 'ritzy' high-dollar fundraiser slated for Tuesday night. Follow me below the fold for an inside look.
The event was slated to start at 7:30pm, but we went down to the lobby at about 6pm to scope out the crowd. Several dozen people were already lounging in the lobby, and the metal detector and red carpet were already laid out. We were told we would be lining up around 7pm, so we went to the bar and waited. At about 6:45pm we came back and everyone was still seated in the lobby. We saw someone we knew locally from the campaign by the metal detector with a list, so we went ahead and she checked us in and we went through the metal detector and down the stairs, and into the ballroom, the first people in! We were in the 'cheap seats', as the $10,000 per person VIP reception was in a room next door.
A row of waiters with glasses of wine and some sushi and other pupus (as we call them here in Hawaii) greeted us. A popular local band, Ho'okena, was playing music. The crowd started trickling in.
A hula dancer joined Ho'okena, followed by another hula dancer who was crowned Miss Aloha Hula at the prestigious Merrie Monarch Hula Festival this year. Then, legendary Hawaiian musician Willie K took the mike and took down the house with a sweeping, fantastic set ranging from Hawaiian classics to Italian arias.
At about 8:30pm, the VIP deal next door apparently concluded, and our two U.S. Senators, Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye, joined the crowd along with Congresswoman Mazie Hirono and Congressman Neil Abercrombie. They were joined on the stage by popular Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann.
Mufi fired up the crowd and did an admirable job ad libbing and filling time as it became increasaingly clear that for whatever reason, Barack was late. By this time my s/o and I had made our way up to the front of the room. Although there were supposedly 500 people there, the room didn't feel particularly crowded. We stood right up at the stage as Barack and Michelle came out and were greeted by Mufi and the congressional delegation.
Despite all the hype in the media of this being a 'ritzy' fundraiser full of 'big shots', it was a typical casual Hawaiian affair, as Barack's outfit makes clear. Most of the people were in what we call 'Aloha attire', short sleeve shirts, casual slacks, casual dresses. I loved Michelle's dress which was a sundress made I believe of white silk, with a beuatiful pattern of grey and green leaves and vines. Michelle didn't speak, and stood off the stage while Barack spoke.
Barack spoke for about 20-25 minutes in a wide-ranging speech that was far different from the many stump speeches I've heard. A lot of emphasis on Hawaii and his upbringing here. After the speech we were talking with our newly elected state party chair, Brian Schatz, who said he was excited by the speech in that it contained lots of new elements and was perhaps a preview of the convention speech. I have to admit I was so caught up in the moment I didn't pay as close attention as I could have to what Barack was saying, but I do remember highlights, which included an emphasis on how the past eight years have made people cynical and how a spirit of renewal and energy is needed. He talked about what growing up in Hawaii taught him about diversity and the capacity of people to transcend the divides politicians sometimes try to create or exaagerate. It was very moving. There was not one word about John McCain. Not one. That was nice. I will say that he seemed very serious, not joking or laughing or light-hearted, which surprised me a bit. But he came across as very impressive.
When he was done speaking, I sent my s/o to crowd the rope for the handshaking while I stood back and took pictures. S/o took his copy of Dreams of my Father to be signed. He got to shake Barack's hand, spoke briefly with him. A Secret Service agent took the book along with a few things other people had for signing and told us we could get them up front after the event. Barack didn't linger, just shook a few hands along the rope, and left.
Was it worth it? Yeah, evey penny. I did kind of hope there would be more lingering and mingling, but I understand I needed to pony up the big(ger) bucks for that opportunity. We were thrilled at what a close encounter it was and impressed with his speech. Here are some pics I took from the event.