Barack Obama The Aloha Zen President

With a foreword written by former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis this book portrays President Barack Obama as a true child of Hawai''i and explains why he believes that America can achieve even more greatness by learning from the multicultural customs of the 50th state.Obama''s aspiration to transform the United States using Hawai''i as his model has been a conspicuous theme in his books and speeches over the years. In them he extols Hawai''i''s multicultural ethos describing how a normative problem-solving mindset predicated on mutual respect and harmonious interchange is inculcated in the culture politics and society of the Islands. Indeed this Aloha Spirit is imbued in Barack Obama is part of what made him irresistibly charismatic as a candidate and explains why voters in 2010 were baffled at his demeanor after he became the 44th President of the United States.This unique book examines Obama''s decisions as an adult and as president and exposes how they are directly linked to the culture of Hawai''i and Obama''s multicultural life as a child. The author and contributors also describe the ways in which native Hawaiians were dispossessed of their sovereignty and their land how they steadfastly sought justice and how their quest served as a model for Obama''s mobilization of support for his candidacy.