Obama, Letterman on Hawaii

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" last night to talk about Bill Clinton, Sarah Palin, and foreign policy. Part of the conversation, however, touched on Obama's first trip to the Mainland as a young boy.

Dave: "I want you to tell us a little bit about, I think when you were 10 or 11 years old, was your first trip to the mainland."

Obama: "That's right. I was living in Hawaii at the time."

Dave: "And you came with your, uh, sister?"

Obama: "I came with my two-year-old sister, my mom and my grandma, and we went to Seattle because that's where my family had lived before they moved to Hawaii."

Dave: "And they decided it was time, as nice as Hawaii is, time to see more of the country."

Obama: "Time to see more of the country, so we went to Seattle, we went to Disneyland, which was big. They got a lot of points for that." (audience laughs)

Dave: "As a kid, you responded the way kids respond to that?"

Obama: "Yeah, Dave, I mean, you know, kids in Hawaii, they know about Mickey Mouse and things like that." (audience laughs, applauds)

Dave: (laughs) "I don't know." (Dave, Obama laugh; audience applauds) "Just checking."

Obama: "Yeah, yeah, it's Disneyland, man." (Audience laughs) "I mean, you know, kids like that."

Dave: "I don't know what it's like in Hawaii, I don't know what's going on over there."

Obama: "So, what do you think? We went and kind of looked around and said, 'What the heck is this?'" (audience, Obama laugh)

Dave: "Yes, yes, I do." (audience laughs)

Obama: "No, so, we went to Disneyland, we went to the Grand Canyon, we went to Yosemite."

Obama also spoke about his mother grandmother, who still lives in Hawaii and is "sharp as a tack" at age 87. You can watch an excerpt from the show, focused on Sarah Palin, online.

Transcript courtesy The Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" blog.