Does it really matter what state he gives the speech in? It's not like any of us can get in to see them anyway, so St. Louis or Stuttgart, who cares? It'll be watered down for the evening news either way.

I know others have mentioned it but I thought I'd add a note here, since i've been following the coverage of his vacation in Hawaii.

I grew up in Hawaii. He's vacationing there but he's also visiting his grandma, who's rather old and he wanted to visit while he had a chance. Hawaii may be portrayed as exotic by the visitors' bureau but trust me, it's a lot like Southern California. It's a STATE. We speak English, we use American dollars. You don't need a passport to go there.

Let's not get started about flying. Bush didn't have to go to Beijing (and in fact it's not traditional for a sitting US president to go to the Olympics) but W seems to be on a permanent vacation now that he's a total lame duck.

Exactly. And just a couple of months ago, we started wearing shoes in Hawai'i.
:D

(Honestly, though, I had someone ask me if everyone wore slippers (flip-flops) in Hawai'i and not shoes.)
And also there was that whole Mission Accomplished flight suit stunt. That was a waste of money. And Bush did go on month long vacations...

His reasons for traveling or no more or less valid than anyone else's. He does, however, travel more than most people and therefore he pollutes more...water bottle or not.

I think the water bottle "incident" could get more people to drink tap water in Hawai'i and elsewhere. Could the benefit of more people not buying/using plastic water bottles outweigh his plane usage? Don't know, but I think it starts a dialogue about tap water and bottled water. That's a good thing.

And no one, no candidate no celebrity etc is 100% green. It is impossible. What is Obama supposed to do? Catapult to Hawai'i? Is Jolie supposed to swim to Africa?

The man is actively campaigning for the highest seat in US government. What do you expect him to do, visit from his Barcolounger?

I'm the OP for this thread, and I posted it because I thought it was a nifty little tidbit that I happened to catch buried well into an article published in the local Honolulu newspaper. It was a way for the reporter to pepper her article with a little bit of personality and what she saw happen. She didn't make a huge deal about it, but I wanted to highlight it because even thought it was a very small act, it told a little bit more to me about the candidate.

It's not that he's not 100% green....it's that he's polluting far more than most people(that, in itself, I have no problem with). If he's going to get points for being "green" shouldn't he be at least as green as the average American?

As for catapulting to Hawaii......well, yes, I suppose if one must visit an Island flying is the only practical way. However, when he gets back to campaigning here in the States will he do it on the back of a train(which creates only 1/10 the pollution per passenger mile as a Jet plane) or will he continue to fly himself and his entourage around the country creating more pollution in a couple of months than my family will in our entire lives?

He's not an average American. He's a senator and he's running for President.

All you can ask of anyone is to be as green as they can be while accomplishing the things they are trying to accomplish.

Take the hypothetical invention of a hybrid big rig truck. By your logic, switching from a diesel truck to a hybrid truck for a shipping company, while still driving the same shipping routes is not really a greener choice because the average American doesn't drive that much. A hybrid truck that drives cross country will pollute more than my traditional combustion engine car that I drive only for my commute. So that truck company has done nothing green because they use more than I do.

Travel is a job requirement for a Presidential candidate. He can't perform his job without traveling. To say his not green because he travels more than most Americans is an absurdity.

I'd expect him to do what he's doing.....and that's great that he refused the bottle(although he doesn't seem to have a problem drinking tea from bottles, but I digress).......but let's not label him some environmental hero until his sacrifices come a little closer to what he'd have the rest of us sacrifice first.