KAILUA, HI - Barack Obama may be the first U.S. president who can successfully pull off the shaka, a Hawaiian greeting Hawaiians say has various meanings, from “hang loose” and “cool” to “thanks.”
The hand gesture, also a common greeting in surfer culture, consists of curling the three middle fingers and extending the thumb and little finger.
The president-elect, looking uber-cool with his White Sox baseball cap on backwards, flipped the shaka to a crowd of about 30 people as he left a gym on a Marine Corps base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is vacationing.
Obama, born and largely raised on Oahu, then walked over to greet the crowd, which had waited through a brief cloudburst to see him. Righting his baseball cap as he walked, he shook hands before posing with four babies.
Front Row Washington
Tracking U.S. politics
Hawaiian ’shaka’ greeting comes natural to Obama
Posted by: Ross Colvin
Tags: Front Row Washington, body language, fashion, Hawaii, illinois senator, language, life, presidential, psychology, sen obama, young voters
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“Please give our new President a chance and stop talking like idiots”
Obama should get all the support he gave to his President.
- Posted by drjohnWill the MSM please stop its fawning adulation of the yet to be inaugurated president *elect*. Will the MSM dare disturb/criticize the new prez who will just need to “finish his last set” after terrorists strike again (as foretold by the veep elect) ?. To the poster who said we need to give the Prez Elect a “break’, when pray tell did the lefty media *ever* give GWB a break?. (crickets)
- Posted by antneI’m trying to get my 22 year old to stop dressing like a teenager. It counts. This is not “cool”, but, if that’s all ya got.
- Posted by JimUber cool? The honeymoon clearly isn’t over yet.
- Posted by David123456Ross, we know the press is about 85% Democrat, but please stop salivating whenever you write about Obama.
- Posted by JoeBush can run a marathon and all we hear is how great shape this guy is in. He still smokes.
“uber cool”?
Give me a break. Journalism is definitely dead. Colvin clearly is looking for a bromance.
- Posted by drjohnAll that’s missing is the bling. Maybe he’ll cut a rap album and ignore this President thing. what remains to be seen is how much he can degrade the Presidency.
- Posted by drjohnWhat a clown! Does this fool remember he represents America now? Not just inner-city Chicago.
- Posted by JimRoss Calvin, you should get a job at Tiger Beat, and give up your job at AP. Our president-elect is “uber-cool”? What are you, 13?
- Posted by SKGood grief. An “uber-cool” president is just what we need. The PEBHO needs to grow up.
- Posted by SueHe looks like an aging rapper. keep on smoking those cigs O - that should help your work out.
- Posted by GANSTAClassy. My unemployed 21 year old gave up the backwards hat after high school. Now If I can get him off of the Xbox long enough for him to fill out a job application….
- Posted by Andy Bremmeyermaybe after his NBA 2009 basketball game? He thinks the P-E is cool.
Joseph,
- Posted by JohnHe is not our president. George W. Bush is our president until January 20, 2009.
I’d like to change the focus from the photo to the reporter.
- Posted by TimBDoes this qualify as objective reporting when the author states that the prez-elect is “uber-cool”
Please give our new President a chance and stop talking like idiots
- Posted by JosephClothes do NOT make the man. We need to give our President Elect a break and let him be relaxed (in a seriously casual and laid back place). The press and people looking for a photo are the ones exploiting innocent carefree moments of a private vacation he and his family are attempting to have before picking up the reins of government. We need to be asking ourselves what we can do to support him and the heavy load he has taken on to serve the American people not invading his privacy then criticizing him for
- Posted by Virginia Carnohannot dressing the we deem appropriate.
this photo still concerns me, he is my president. he is not our buddy or the guy next door. having traveled this planet, i understand how, in difficult times this sort of innocent photo op. can be used. surround him with those with int’l street smarts. try using the usa hand sign for ok in brazil and LEARN!
- Posted by terry sousaI wonder if the President-Elect speaks any other languages.
- Posted by dmjakersplease do not wear hat backwards in public
- Posted by terry sousacatchers in baseball wear hats in that fashion. usa needs more hitters and pitchers than catchers. berra was good, but mantle, dimaggio, williams, and the babe understood. repect is earned and not to be confused with imagery. leaders should be considerate of photo’s showing one catching rather than hitting or pitching. the usa needs……….?
- Posted by terry sousa