Hawaiin youth perspective

Sen. Barack Obama took Hawaii handily on Tuesday with 76 percent of the vote. Hawaii, where Obama was born and spent much of his youth, was covered extensively in the news for the first time in ages. Perhaps it was because of the personal connection Obama has with the state. Perhaps it was because Hawaii could, and did, become Obama's tenth straight state victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton. Perhaps it was because the Democratic battle is the closest it has been during the primaries in a while, and is occurring during an election year that could potentially become one that goes down in history.

But Hawaii, hours and hours off the coast of the mainland, typically gets ignored in coverage. In fact, neither Democratic candidate visited the state, but rather stayed in Wisconsin to do some last-minute campaigning. Coming toward the end of a tiring campaign trail, the travel time and time difference makes the distance of Hawaii a bit foreboding. Besides, the state only offers 20 delegates compared to the more promising victories the candidates can achieve in other states. Frankly, Hawaii is too inconvenient to bother with. Instead, Clinton sent her daughter Chelsea and Obama sent his sister Dr. Maya Soetoro-Ng.

But the truth of the matter is, Hawaii has been in the news. And after Texas, Hawaii sends most out-of-state students to USC, so it was easy to catch up with a few to see what they thought about the attention as well as the candidates.

“Its’ really kind of exciting for Hawaii especially," Jon Yu said. "Usually we don’t get very much attention.” He said he'd be voting for Obama. When asked if the fact Obama is from Hawaii factors in at all, Yu said: "Of course. Everybody wants to vote for the person who he feels most in tuned with. Whether that be because of beliefs or origin, hey, it's still connection."

Brian Chung, another USC student, said, “I also plan on voting for Barack Obama because of his stance uniting the country together. I feel its very important, but also because he went to my school.”

Somebody once told me that if a candidate can reach a person on five different levels, he or she will get the vote. If a common birth state, school, understanding of an island, etc. is factored in, it's no wonder Obama took Hawaii in stride.