A quiet Christmas in Hawaii for Obama

PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama made clear to his aides that he wanted to spend the Christmas holiday in Hawaii, as he had done in years past: there is no more campaign, this will be a true family vacation.

So it is to them no surprise that Obama, with less than a month before he takes office, has largely kept away from public view while at his rented vacation home near Honolulu. No speeches, no fundraisers, no forced political meetings. Just family and close friends, holed up behind stone and lava walls at the $9 million (€6.4m) beachfront home for his last trip before he takes office on January 20. So far, it has worked.

Obama has ventured into public only a few times since arriving from his home in Chicago last Saturday. He brought with him only four aides and his Secret Service detail. His comments to the journalists have included little more than jokes about bar tabs or questions if they had enough photographs yet.