Raw Video: President Obama Orders a 'Snowbama'

Right now the thought of shave ice makes me want to scream. We're going to hit a high of about 17 degrees today.

Video- Obama on Hawaiin Golf Course via YouTube

Via Jake.

Friend of Obama hurt in Hawaii

Just now on MSNBC they said that POTUS cut his golfing short to go back to the compound due to a friend being injured. They said it is not a family member and that there are police and an ambulance at the home they are staying at. I'll follow up when I get more.

ADDED-

HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) - A friend of President Barack Obama's family received minor injuries during the first family's Christmas vacation in Hawaii on Monday, White House aides said.

Aides said no one from the first family was hurt in the incident, details of which were not immediately available. But the incident created a stir when several police vehicles and an ambulance were called to the rental home on the island of Oahu, where the president and his family are staying.

Video & Photos- Obamas visit troops at Hawaii base's Christmas chow-down

Via this article in the Honolulu Advertiser.

Raw Video: Obamas Arrive in Hawaii for Vacation

No Ho for Bo (DON Ho)

By GottaLaff

Aww, no luaus for BObama:

White House officials confirmed that the Obamas' Portuguese water dog stayed behind when Marine One departed the White House on Christmas Eve. Hawaii has strict quarantine policies, requiring 120 days of pet isolation to contain rabies. And a 10-hour flight could test the discipline of any young dog. So Bo will be boarded until the family returns in early January.

So much for no dog left behind.

Lei down, Bo. Stay. Good poi.

Video- Obama's Hawaii White House

I guess I could force myself to stay there a couple weeks.

Obama: "I will not leave until my friends in the Senate have completed their work"

By GottaLaff

It would have looked pretty darned bad if Prez O had taken off for the holidays before the Senate did:

"I will not leave until my friends in the Senate have completed their work. My attitude is if they are making these sacrifices to provide health care to all Americans, the least I can do is be around and provide them any encouragement and last-minute help."

-- President Obama, on delaying his planned Hawaii vacation until the Senate passes the health care reform bill.

Of course, "some say" he hasn't provided them with help to begin with. Robert Gibbs begs to differ (per his daily briefings).

Obama wraps ups Hawaiian Holiday

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VIDEO: Obama's contribution to Hawaii's tourism industry is a real Hono-LULU

By GottaLaff

Riding the Obama wave:

A Cottage Industry Centered Around The Hometown Hero Has Emerged In The Aloha State

It's nice to see some positive news out there.

Pool report: Obama checks watch at 12:22, smiles at 12:23, rolls his eyes at pool at 12:24

By GottaLaff

Pool reports are hilarious. The detail that they go into over the least little thing makes me wonder how they consistently miss all the really big important obvious news stories:

For the third time this trip, President-elect Barack Obama left the Kailua compound where he and his entourage are staying for a round of golf at an area course. It was the second time this trip that Obama has played at the course. At 12:05 p.m. Obama's motorcade left Kailuana Place in Kailua, arriving at the course at 12:15 p.m. Obama greeted Punahou classmate Greg Orme with a hearty handshake and hug.

Obama is golfing with Chicago friends Eric Whitaker, Martin Nesbitt, aide Eugene Kang, and Punahou classmates Bobby Titcomb, and Greg Orme After loading his clubs onto a cart, Obama, wearing sunglasses, a white shirt, khaki shorts, white and brown golf shoes, and a red baseball cap emblazoned with the City and County of Honolulu's Ocean Safety logo, drove down to the driving range. At 12:21 p.m. he bent over a grey plastic trash can and filled a bucket half-full with range balls.

Standing next to Whitaker, Obama , with a white glove on his right hand, spread the range balls out on the grass before putting an iron behind his back and stretching. Obama took three practice swings. His first shot was a ground ball straight ahead. His next shot went airborne but created a divet that Obama walked out to pick up and replace. After several more shots and one more replaced divet , Obama looked up to the pool and pointed at the photographers and reporters with his iron. The pool was then moved into the course's clubhouse.

He then inhaled, and exhaled, repeatedly, as he put one foot in front of the other to form step after step, which eventually propelled him into the clubhouse at 12:25. The clubhouse was decorated in pleasant shades of taupe, eggshell white, and off-mauve. There was a noticeable tear in one of the clubhouse curtains. Obama, who removed his now-sweat-soaked white glove at 12:28:03, shot us a look of "are you kidding me?" as we took copious notes about how many chews it took until he swallowed his food at lunch.

At 12:29, Obama turned his head three inches to the right, swatted a fly with his now-ungloved hand, sighed heavily when he caught sight of one of the pool reporters measuring the length of the now-dead fly, and continued to chew his food until swallowing. This act was repeated several times until all the food was gone from Obama's plate, at approximately 12:32:05. The plate was made of kiln-baked ceramic, awash in a pale seafoam green crackle-glaze, and measured exactly 10.019 inches in diameter.

Before the pool was able to notice, Obama slipped away, apparently placing right foot after left in a series of sequential steps, and disappeared for hours. Pool is still waiting. It is 3:48.22.

Hawaii blackout left Obama in dark for 12 hours

Strange. I guess if they felt they'd be sleeping thru it there was no reason to need electricity. Wonder how the Secret Service dealt with it?

HONOLULU (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama was without electricity for 12 hours at his vacation home on Oahu following a major blackout across Hawaii's most populous island, an aide said on Saturday.

The outage on Friday night left hundreds of thousands of people, including Obama and his family, in the dark as an electrical storm rolled over Oahu.

"Power was restored to the residence during the 6 o'clock hour this morning. The Obama family is grateful for the offers of assistance from local officials," said Ben Labolt, a spokesman for Obama.

Blackout hits Oahu, vacationing Obama

I thought two things when I heard about this earlier- first, that I was sure that wherever the PE was staying had back up generators (but it still made me nervous) and then I wondered when the last time we had heard anything like this about Hawaii? As Oliver says, "It’s quite possible that for the next 4-8 years we’re going to hear more about Hawaii than we did about Crawford, Texas. And that’s going to be a pretty cool thing." Yep.

OAHU, Hawaii — A thunder storm left most of the Hawaiian island of Oahu without power Saturday night. The blackout left about 800,000 residents and tourists — among them vacationing President-elect Barack Obama and his family — in the dark.

The blackout began when a lightning strike at 6:05 p.m. local time overloaded the system, knocking out several generators. The Obamas were then at their vacation home, having returned from the excursion the press had dubbed 'Waikiki-gate.' That house lost power at 8:08 p.m., and by 8:35 p.m., all 11 of the island's generators were out.

While the transition has yet to issue any statement about the blackout, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann told reporters that he had contacted Obama at 9:30 p.m., and that the president-elect said everything was fine and he was going to bed to sleep through the outage. By that point, the Obamas had power supplied by a portable generator.

I'm dreaming of a ... tropical Christmas

By GottaLaff

Oh, to be a pool reporter:

President-elect Barack Obama will spend the Christmas and New Year's holidays on an extended vacation with his family in Hawaii, Democratic sources confirmed today. [...] The Christmas trek to Hawaii may be a regular occurrence for Obama in the White House, which would please the press corps, the Secret Service, WHCA and the locals to no end -- though it must be said: Crawford was probably easier to secure.

Mele kalikimaka!