Despite rumors that he was either born of a virgin or outside the USA, Hawaii really is a state, and that's where our man was birthed. He lived there for most of his life, and I'm saying he's da kine.
I know that Obama is who he is today, because he grew up away from the Mainland and the racial stereotypes.
Even though it's part of the States, the culture in Hawaii is completely different from the mainland, and understanding the differences is to understand why he's going to be such a great President.
On race:
Hawaii is the most racially diverse state, but no one race is a majority. So everyone is a minority. We are equal opportunity lovers and haters.
Distinctions are more class-based. With limited resources, it's always been about who controls the most.
Now I'm not saying that race isn't acknowledged because it is:
Traditionally the Chinese are the business people, the Japanese the bureaucrats, the Portuguese and Samoans the cops, the Haoles (white mainlanders) are the tourists, middle-management, clueless ex-pats, and wanna-be locals, the Filipinos are the service workers, and the Hawaiians are the poor folks - suffering the most from 250 years of colonization.
None of this is written in stone, it's just what happened. People inter-marry and I think it's safe to say that given the tropical sun, everyone is now some fine looking shade of brown.
In addition, African-Americans in Hawaii are called "Popolo's" which just is the word for the color black in Hawaiian. It has no more negative racial over-(or under) tones than any of the other stupid, often funny things people define themselves racially as. (Bad English, but you get the idea).
In addition, Popolos are not Haoles - which is the real pejorative - meaning foreigner or stranger. The old saying is "I lived in Hawaii for a whole year before I figured out 'fucking-haole' was two words".
So what I'm saying is that everyone talks smack about everybody else, and nobody gets their panties in a bunch about it. While Obama got to partake of the ever so much fun 'snapping' on his fellows in pidgin, he thankfully missed all the negative stereotyping black folks had to live with growing up in mainland America. He missed the old white ladies looking scared if he sat down next to them as a teenager on the bus. He missed Rodney King and the riots. He missed afirmative action and he missed 250 years of weirdness about African-Americans in America. As a result he has a different internal reality. This is going to serve him soooo well as President.
On culture:
When you live on an island, um, there really isn't anywhere to go if you behave badly. There isn't a lot of car theft on islands for this reason. Sooner or later, if you make "a**", you are going to run into the person you dissed or ripped off or whatever, at the grocery store, dropping in on a wave or walking down the street.
The people who live in Hawaii, from pre-contact Hawaiians, the imported workers for the cane fields, to the schleps trying to survive today with prices going through the roof, have always had to deal with being poor, isolated and exploited. To survive they've developed a society that that fosters cooperation and values mutual respect.
Keiki's are taught from small kid time that you respectfully call elderly ladies Auntie or Tutu; you take off your shoes when you enter someone's house; you don't sass your teacher; you say please and thank you; and you respect the aina, the land that gives you life.
In addition to Hawaii, Obama lived in a really different culture - Indonesia. He has friends, family, and acquaintances in the country that has the largest Muslim population in the world. On November 5th, we are going to wake up to 450+ million new bestest friends in Indonesia.
THIS- folks, and hear me on this one - THIS IS GOING TO DO MORE FOR OUR NATIONAL SECURITY than all the shoes in the world taken off in a million airports.
Obama is the best of all these diverse cultures. He is truly a child of the 21st Century.
"Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono"
The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness
Aloha!