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The Governor's Got No Love For Her State's Most Famous Son
Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle is not only campaigning against Barack Obama—she’s insinuating he’s not even from there.
A few weeks ago, the governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, said, "Senator Obama likes to say he's from Hawaii. But, the truth is, I've never met him in my life. He's never called me on the phone. Ninety-five percent of the people in my state had never heard of him before he ran for president.”
At a time when people in Chicago, Boston and Nairobi are claiming Obama as one of their own, this was a willful and even untrue statement. At the moment Gov. Lingle is in Nevada, stumping for the McCain-Palin ticket, three thousand miles from this sun-kissed archipelago and its slumping one-industry economy—tourism down 20 percent this year and headed lower.
But then Gov. Lingle is an odd fish, even by Hawaii standards, which are among the fishiest I have ever come across in a lifetime of peregrination. You would not know much about her from reading the glowing biographical portrait put out by the Office of the Governor, which does not give her birth name, nor her date of birth, nor the name of her high school, nor her several marriages, nor her several divorces, nor (though the Israeli newspaper Haaretz put “Hawaii’s First Jewish Governor” in a screaming headline), her religious affiliation. Indeed she has spent more time junketing in Israel than in many districts of her own state.
Stumping for McCain in Greeley, Colorado recently, Gov. Lingle scoffed at the notion that Obama had any strong links with Hawaii.
She was born Linda Cutter in St Louis, Missouri in 1953. In the mid-sixties she moved to California with her family and went to school there, graduated from Birmingham High School in Lake Balboa, California, then got a journalism degree from Cal State, Northridge. She married Mr. Lingle in 1972. She divorced him in 1975, around the time she left for Hawaii, where her father had relocated, and where her uncle had a car dealership (“Cars Cost less at Cutter! Ten Locations! Thousands of Vehicles!”). At some point she became a Republican. She married Mr. Crockett, lived for a while on the island of Molokai, then divorced Mr. Crockett, but keeping the Lingle name, entered politics. I rehearse these facts with her Mainland dossier because she is casting doubt on Obama’s Hawaii connections and even his integrity. Obama was born here, which makes him a keiki o ka ‘aina—a child of the land, something she is not.
I was introduced to Gov. Lingle at a political event not long after her reelection by a friend who insistently repeated my name. When the governor looked blank, my friend said, “The writer! He writes books!” She said, “I don’t have a lot of free time for reading,” and moved on.
Funnily enough, the first time I met Senator Obama, two years ago in a hamburger joint in my little town on the North Shore of Oahu (the sort of place only a local would know), he showed an intimate acquaintance with my work, and even an appreciation. I was with Pico Iyer. Obama said to Pico, “I love your book on Cuba.” Needless to say, I urged the senator to run for president.
Stumping for McCain in Greeley, Colorado recently, Gov. Lingle scoffed at the notion that Obama had any strong links with Hawaii, claiming that he’d spent only “a few high school years” in Hawaii.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Islanders Eulogize Obama's 'Tutu'
Paul Edward Theroux is a travel writer and novelist whose best known work, The Great Railway Bazaar, is a travelogue about a trip he made by train from Great Britain through Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, through South Asia, then South-East Asia, up through East Asia, as far east as Japan, and then back across Russia to his point of origin. Although perhaps best known as a travel writer, he has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films.
Paul Theroux. Swoon. More of the same please.
Very nice
So the governor never heard of you or your works, and you trash her with this bullshit. Small man with small mind.
Any time the author of a critical piece seems to suggest that one of the subject's failings is their lack of recognition of the author's fame, I roll my eyes so hard I risk cranial injury. I actually doubt that was the intent here, but in my opinion the inclusion of that little vignette undermines the piece and would have been better left out.
Anyone like to guess the odds of Sarah Palin having heard of, much less read any of their books?
What wimps Republicans have become. They used to be able to conjure some vicious swiftboat attacks; alas, now all they can muster is a mild swiftcanoe (swift wa'a) swirling in the tide pools. And following her own reasoning, when I was in Hawaii I never met her; therefore, she doesn't exist.
PS: Thanks for some great books over the years. It seems that what most Republicans know about books is their flashpoint as they are toosed into a bonfire.
Kudos to Paul Theroux. All the lies and smears won't change the fact that on Nov 5th we will wake up to hear "Good Morning America - I'm Barack the President!"
And as far as the fundamentalist Christians being a "friend" to Israel, with friends like these, we don't need enemies. They're waiting for and even actively encouraging chaos in the Middle East because they believe the Rapture is coming. When they will be swept up to Heavan and everyone else, including their so-called Jewish "friends" will be consigned to some horrible Hell. Probably a Republican campaign headquarters.
Looks like she has chosen the right team...weak on facts and logic, strong on uneducated opinion.
Well, I certainly hope Hawaii sees her true colors, and does not re-elect her again.
How did a far right winger like her, get elected Governor, in a peaceful state like Hawaii, in the first place?
Plus, lingle forgot one of the most defining traits of hawaii. When locals ask "where did you go to school" they don't mean college - they mean high school. Your high school is a defining trait, locally. In Hawaii, if you went to high school here, you're from here.
2010 Lingle leaves. Paul, will you run?
Fav writer ever. Thanks, Paul! Well done.
Paul,
Why is this even an issue? As a former Navy brat who spent time being raised in Hawaii and even on Midway Island (part of the same chain of islands, by the way) I simply tell folks that I'm from all over - which is true. Obama is the same. Like me, he is a Heinz 57 mixture of many cultures, raised all over the world. In his case, that includes Asia, in mine, it includes Pacific islands, Europe, and Central America.
With so many issues of substance to write about, why don't you apply your considerable talents to an endeavor worthy of them instead of pandering to Obama's chauvanistic followers?
I just wanna know why SHE can't get that all-important birth certificate unsealed?
OH! and great article, Paul... just goes to prove my theory that Republican's are basically anti-intellectual. And how rude she was... gee!
Paul, I've enjoyed every one of your books but, even though the writing is good, I've never wanted to visit any place you have written about. Why don't you try Hawaii. I can't afford it anyway
Thanks, Paul, for doing the research. Cutter, eh? I remember the ads for Cutter-Ford Aiea on television in the seventies and the horrible, can't-get-it-outta-yer-head jingle sung by Loyal Garner: "Cuttafawwd ayeaaaah wehyu make da deal".
This woman is an embarrasment to all Hawaiians. She has no aloha, no love for our aina and no appreciation of the picture she projects of our state. I've never met her, not that I want to, and I'd heard of Barack Obama before he ran for Presdient. She has done the Republican march and she's looking to feather her future political nest because no one here wants anymore of her BIG business as usual crap. Of course while there's an economic crisis here she's on the road for the people who caused it. What a farce of a Governor she's been. From the Big Island with aloha, where we welcome our native son as President next Tuesday.
Another distinction between Sen. Obama and Gov. Lingle: he's won by being himself, openly and honestly. She's won by hiding her true intentions from a public that would never accept them. Witness the Kahana Valley evictions that she, her DLNR chief and the Attorney General are perpetrating right now. For what good reason? No one can really say, except basic power driven meanness. Yet read her election platform and see all the "aloha" points she makes. Where's the poi?
Good luck on your next run for govenor. You look mighty foolish.
I think the point here is not that Obama knows Hawaii but that Hawaii does not seem to know Obama.
It is also curious that such an endearing grandmother in Hawaii has nothing to say to a country that is so close to electing her grandson the first black president of the United States. Equally curious is the lack of any recent photos of Obama and his family with his grandmother despite the fact they had a fairly recent visit while vacationing in Hawaii at the onset of the economic crisis.
Have there been any interviews with friends or neighbors in Hawaii? I don't think it is an attack on intellect or cultural background to say that Hawaii does not know Obama. Rather, it is simply a recognition that Obama, potentially the first black POTUS, a monumental historically significant achievement, simply was not well known in Hawaii prior to his nomination.
Producing a full vault of a birth certificate should not be a problem for anyone running for POTUS with enormous political power and funds, especially in an era when homeland security is paramount. If there isn't anything to hide, why deploy so many lawyers to block any requests?
For a potential leader of the U.S., this does not appear to be the best display of leadership by example. It also demonstrates an aggressive and expensive move to avoid transparency. What message does this send to Americans citizens and immigrants?
It is also extremely interesting that a candidate who pays ACORN specifically for voting efforts, which is evidenced to be engaged in voter registration fraud as well as heavy responsibility for the predatory sub-prime loans, which are the primary root cause of the current economic crisis, does not publicly denounce ACORN, immediately cut any ties and propose a specific plan of action to demand ACORN officials be held accountable.
This simply does not appear to be an issue of intellect because Obama is intelligent. Add to this a steadfast "spread the wealth" philosophical approach to the economy with tax increases, and one must deduce that this is not an issue of economic growth, as clearly the intellect would dictate that tax increases would not be helpful and will most definitely be harmful to the overall economy and the citizens subjected to it.
Americans are left with legitimate questions, which will likely remain unanswered through election day.
In the meantime, Americans should not judge or be judged by their level of income, race, gender, religion, sex, or cultural background.
Judgment, character, truthfulness, openness, record of accomplishment, experience and willingness to support and defend the Constitution of the United States are the qualities that any president of the United States must embody to earn the privilege of taking the Oath of Office.
Specifically, I would like to respond to LadyHawk08, in particular her cold blooded references to Obama's gravely ill grandmother.
As a human being, do you not understand that when someone is gravely ill, they are unable to participate to the level of your satisfaction?
The cold bloodedness of your comments are unexceptional compared to some of the comments made during this election season; all of these comments reflect poorly on all of us.
And newsflash, the state government in Hawaii has indeed confirmed that Obama was born in Hawaii and that they have his birth certificate. This was reported on the news in Hawaii today.
Your friends are misinforming you.
The grandmother is gravely ill. I hardly think she is in any condition to be exploited for a sound byte or a photo op. Shame on you, ladyhawk08.
ladyhawk08 is living proof that America IS filled with knuckle dragging, mouth breathing morons. God save our country from imbeciles!
Thank you.
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