In this photo, Oliver Willis does his best to demonstrate just how elite a vacation in Hawaii is. It isn’t just any blue blood that can make a face in a pineapple cutout.
So, the idiot meme du jour (aka, its summer time and air time/newspaper columns must be filled!) is that Barack Obama is once again going back to the well of elitism by going on vacation to Hawaii. Really. Well, first of all, as has been noted before, Obama had a middle class upbringing and married a woman from working class Chicago. Sen. McCain’s father was an admiral and after McCain ditched his first wife, he married a heiress beauty pageant contestant. Until his book topped the charts, Sen. Obama had student loans he was still repaying. Sen. McCain lives on a multi-acre family compound with numerous other homes across the country.
Now, speaking specifically about vacations, Sen. McCain spent his downtime earlier this year on his palatial ranch (including a man made pond), entertaining the mainstream media with barbecue in an event catered by his family’s personal assistant. Sen. Obama is on vacation in Hawaii, where his sister (among other members of his family) lives. On Sunday Cokie Roberts – the very definition of the blue blood Washington elitists who have so much wealth and power in this country – called Hawaii “exotic” and “foreign” (and used that as a reason for why Sen. Obama shouldn’t have gone there). Granted, I would expect maybe for Sen. McCain to make this mistake since Hawaii became a state when McCain was 22 (!) and as such he finds the concept that Hawaii is now a state something of a new novelty, but while it is in the Pacific, Hawaii is in fact one of our states. They’ve got a governor, two senators and everything.
That same Hawaiian government – a government elected by the AMERICANS who live in THE STATE of Hawaii – has some statistics on the amount of people who travel to the state. So far this year Hawaii has had 2.596 million domestic visitors. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that that number is far smaller than the amount of people who visited the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine (how many of you have a “family compound”?), or the amount of people who vacationed at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Texas (I don’t know about you, but the Willis family does not have a ranch, not even in southern Maryland or in the rural areas of Jamaica), and 2.5 million is way way more than the amount of visitors to Camp McCain, where a professional staff saw to the needs of the assembled journalists (themselves often on the receiving end of an elite lifestyle far beyond the average middle class American).
Like Senator Obama, I went on vacation a few years ago to Hawaii. And I can assure you I’m not anywhere near the net worth of the elite with notable names like Kennedy, Bush… and McCain.
Man, I have no idea what your post is about, and why? Because that’s the best damn photo I’ve ever seen.
My grandma from small-town Alabama, who grew all her own food in her backyard garden, scrimped for years to take her one big vacation ever in Hawaii.
Elitist? Tell it to grandma.
Pineapple photo for the win.
I’ve never been to Hawaii but my cousins, who live in Vegas, go all the time. They say it’s gorgeous. Maybe I’ll put it on my list of places to visit; right now, though, if I’m gonna spend half a day on a plane ride costing the earth, it’s gonna be to go to Jerusalem or Cairo or something.
A.
I read this first on HuffPo! Congrats, Oliver. Remember us when you’re rich and famous.
Great!!! Yesterday, after listening to Cokie Roberts’ remarks, I went on a search for an email address to tell her what a miserable, stupid human being she is. Obama should have vacationed at Myrtle Beach!!!!
How hoity toity for a Boggs descendant.
Yes, the East coast political elite. One reason I see the Clintons as climbers. How come there was no mountain cabin in Arkansas to spend part of the summer. Oh no. It had to be Martha’s Vineyard. Obama went home where normal Americans spend vacations and holidays.
Truly, the pettiness of these b……s, green with envy because a man of color has won the admiration of the entire world, knows no limits.
Don’t they realize that Obama represents this multi-ethnic, multi- racial nation of ours. And, furthermore, his victory will tell the world that the US has brought to an end the veiled or unveiled tolerance of racial, ethnic and religious discrimination. Obama is not perfect. The movement he has inspired is the proudest moment in our history, one I never dreamed I would live to see.
Until Hawaii and the other territories actually get the right to vote in presidential elections, Obama has no right spending two weeks there during an election.
What if he eats some arugula while he’s there. And drinks some OJ. Hubris, thy name is Barack.
Overpaid by a factor of 100, thy name is Cokie.
The definition of “down to earth” in political terms is “spending your money on stuff that middle-America would spend their money on if they had it.” And since, as we all know, vacationing in Hawai’i is one the most proletarian of the “nice vacation destinations” one can go, we can see that Obama made the right political move here.
Seriously, is this the best the media can do?
The guy grew up there, he has family there, it is a frikkin’ state after all. Nothing “elite” about it.
Cokie Roberts, like David Brooks, is an elitist fuckhead.
Don’t forget that Obama’s grandmother, who is unable to travel, still lives in Hawaii. The Obama’s visit is her only chance to see her grandson and great-grand daughters.
It’s incredibly elitist of Barack Obama’s grandmother to live in Hawaii. No doubt he shares her elitism.
Don’t forget that Obama’s grandmother, who is unable to travel, still lives in Hawaii.
On a terrorist no-fly list, no doubt.
I lurve it when MSM talking heads lecture the rest of us as to what constitutes “elitist” behavior.
I can assure you these are the types of fuckers who’ve never had to change their own flat tire, and probably haven’t done their own laundry for decades.
Silvia Pena:
Not only was her father once House Majority Leader(meaning he was once on Steny Hoyer’s spot), but he was a Democrat to boot. Also, her father was killed in the same plane crashed that claimed the father of Mark Begich(the guy running against Ted “Toobez!!” Stevens).
I never thought much about Roberts – she was neither an airhead nor an aggravating personality. She seemed to spout what passed for conventional wisdom in the Beltway – but the idea that Hawaii “looks” foreign and exotic is something new.
My grandmother lives in India, I have not seen her in 10 years, and chances are, I will not see her again before she dies. Since I have family spread out throughout the U.S., I can’t save up enough vacation days in any one year to spend enough time in India. For Roberts to suggest that Obama should spend more time campaigning in Myrtle Beach instead of with his family is not really a sign of family values.
I’ve seen a distinct lack of right-winger support of Cokie Roberts in various blog comments. That means that the RNC decided not to incorporate her stupid statement into their talking points.
Impressive: Cokie Roberts’ statement was too stupid for right wing trolls.
Scratch, you ARE being sarcastic…right?
Aloha from Hawaii… unfortunately, from one of the anti-elitist islands Obama won’t be visiting (c’mon, Barry, your kids need to see active volcanoes too, don’t they?).
Yeah, Cokie’s just a noisemaker. We have them here too, but we spell it Coqui.
Just wanted to make the point that the 2.5 million visitors who come here without family ties are probably more the “elite” than anyone who actually lives here (or has lived here). I’ve got neighbors who’ve never gone anywhere further afield than the next island on a family vacation.
When it’s $4.50 for a gallon of gas, $6 for a box of cereal, and you work 6 part-time jobs (with no insurance) to make ends meet because full-time jobs are too hard to come by, “elitist” isn’t the word for it.
God I hope they are because if they aren’t this country is f*cking screwed.
I was going to take a road trip until gas prices just about price me out of that idea… then I was going to fly but that whole gas thing bit me in the ass again. I wonder dose Paris Hilton knows that her cocaine is flown in from Jets fueled by gasoline?
Either way I pay no gas tax thanks to my friends the Seneca Nation. Less money that Albany, NY and the Feds get to take from my pocket. Oh before I go I wonder whats everybody is going to say when the Feds raise the gas tax thanks to everybody not driving?
how many of you have a “family compound”
I have some friends with cottages thought Western New York. Yea I know its not on some Bush Family level however its a cool place to just unplug. I know you DC dwellers think WV is uber-hick land however you should visit the place sometime even if Obama and friends wont give you a break on your gas taxes!
Guitar-playing pineapples in Bermuda shorts are notoriously elitist.
I’m sure that the pineapple is meant to be playing a ukulele, not a guitar. If you weren’t such an uppity elitist you would know that.
[...] of accusing Obama of being elitist for going on vacation in Hawaii. As we here at OliverWillis.com noted previously. That’s not a playground for the elite, it’s a normal family vacation that’s as [...]