WaPo’s Philip Rucker, himself on assignment in Honolulu, reports on the correspondent corps covering Pres.-elect Obama’s Hawaii vacation. It’s “a departure from past holidays hunkered down near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex,” Rucker writes. “They’ve upgraded their offices from highway hotels in Waco to the Westin Moana Surfrider Resort on Waikiki Beach. They’ve traded a backdrop of rusted farm equipment and bales of hay for sailboats, longboards and crashing waves.
“What a difference a year makes,” NBC’s Savannah Guthrie tells Rucker as she leans back in a padded armchair on a veranda overlooking the Pacific Ocean. “No offense to the people of Crawford, Texas, but taking the presidential retreat from Crawford to Honolulu is change anyone can believe in,” CNN’s Ed Henry tells Rucker.
“The best part of this assignment is the shoes: flip-flops,” ABC News White House correspondent Yunji de Nies tells Rucker. “When you work at the White House like I do, you wear heels every day. Here, half the stand-ups I do, I’m barefoot.”