For the thousands who stood calmly in line under a light breeze and an afternoon sun at Ke’ehi Lagoon Beach Park last week to welcome presidential candidate Barack Obama back to Hawai’i, the electricity of the grassroots campaign that shot the Illinois senator to the heights of international acclaim remained focused and steady.

The scenes of chaos expected at a rock star homecoming, of which Hawai’i voters got a brief taste while rubbing sweaty shoulders at overflowing caucus sites like Kawananakoa Middle School in February, were absent. Instead, the excitement was tempered and, at first, reserved prior to the candidate’s arrival on a day when the Republican National Party had released its “Barrack Obama Hawai’i Travel Guide”–an attempt to trivialize Obama’s popularity with the people by depicting him as a reality TV show celebrity. Gov. Linda Lingle herself attributed the state’s excitement for this year’s presidential elections to the kind of celebrity worship seen with American Idol.

The Republican strategy also involved making light of Obama’s attendance at Punahou School on scholarship,while being raised by a single mother. The hope, apparently, was that the rest of the nation would see him as elitist and out of touch with American values.

The experience, however, which for most Hawai’i residents who attended was the first time seeing the candidate in person, told a different story.

A kaleidoscope of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural supporters revealed a tutu in a straw hat politely stepping aside as a shirtless father wheels his toddlers by on a red wagon, a military couple in board shorts offering a Menehune water bottle to a man in business slacks and an aloha shirt and a baby taking a rest on the bottom of a guard rail, bringing smiles to police officers and local reporters.

It was the kind of thing that represents what Obama spoke about that day–the aloha spirit. “We all have obligations to each other,” he said, “we should all help one another.”

He described the aloha spirit as the thing that Hawai’i has imprinted on him the most.

“When you come from Hawai’i, you start understanding that what’s on the surface doesn’t matter,” Obama said. “The people of Hawai’i understand that if we stand up and fight, there is no reason we can’t bring about change.”

In his speech, Obama highlighted the changes needed in energy consumption, education, health care, Iraq and foreign policy.

Piula Alailima, who saw Obama for the first time with his baby daughter and his wife Kim, said, “Obama always gets to the heart of the issue. He always gets above the negativity.”

For supporters like Gabrella Gomez, attacks on Obama’s popularity and his upbringing in Hawai’i show that the opposition isn’t confident in challenging him on the issues.

“Everyone is always going to say bad and good stuff,” Gomez says. “[Obama] did start from the bottom and work his way up. He is a role model.”

Students Alex Stoia and Leilani Meng attended the rally while on a trip from California to visit their grandmother.

“I thought that he mixed it well with the political issues and keeping it casual,” says Stoia, who had seen Obama speak in the continental United States before. “He carries that in all his speeches.”

“I liked that he talked about the Islands’ aloha spirit,” Meng says. “I’m glad he’s from Hawai’i and that he lives and stands by aloha.”

As Republican critics continue to trivialize Hawai’i as a state that is out of touch with the rest of the nation’s problems–as nothing more than a luxury vacation spot–local voters must question what it will take for Lingle to put aside her political ties and stand up for the reputation of her state.

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