Just Spare Me

Hawaiians have a great deal of affection for local boys and girls who make good on larger stages. Bette Midler, Steve Case, Shane Victorino, and, of course, Barack Obama are welcomed back as hometown heroes. But it doesn’t hurt for one’s politics to be left-of-center.

Substitute “the Bushes” for “the Obamas” in the following sentences from the WSJ, and the media and popular reaction would be quite different.

The city shut down a public beach so the Obamas and their guests could swim on Sunday. On Tuesday, they picnicked alone on Hanauma Bay.

On New Year's Eve, the Obamas watched "Avatar" in a shopping-mall theater cleared of people.

It's a refreshing sign of the new tolerance that shutting down public access to popular beaches, malls, and other gathering places [the meaning of O’ahu, BTW] does not show elitism, special privilege, and arrogance. Also, I do not begrudge the President his Hawaiian vacation.

Just spare me the outrage when a Republican President (and, yes, we’ll probably have another one in our lifetimes) does the same.