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.

“OK, guys,” Obama bemoaned while walking to a driving range last Sunday. “Come on... How many shots do you need?” Obama ventured from his home on Christmas Day to thank US marines and sailors at the nearby military base for their service. He spent more than an hour at the dining hall, posing for pictures between the ham, roast beef and turkey on the buffet. The trip came well after the evening network news programmes had aired, a move that allowed him to visit without the suggestion of He and his wife Michelle have visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii for daily morning workouts. Twice, he and friends have played a round of golf. He attended a private memorial service for his grandmother on Tuesday and scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean.

And that’s been it — something his aides say will keep pace until he returns to Chicago in the new year.

Obama Tops

PRESIDENT-elect Barack Obama has replaced US President George W Bush as the most admired man in America, according to a poll published yesterday in the USA Today newspaper.

One-third of the 1,008 respondents named him as their first or second choice, with Bush falling to a distant second after seven years as the country’s most-admired man.

Thirty-two percent chose Obama against 5% for Bush. It was the first time a president-elect topped the poll since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.

Among men, John McCain — Obama’s defeated Republican rival for the presidency — ranked third and three others tied for fourth place: Pope Benedict XVI, the Reverend Billy Graham and former president Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton led the list of most-admired woman at 20%. Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential candidate, was a distant second at 11%. Michelle Obama came in fifth place.