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 Returning from an early morning gym visit at nearby Marine Corps
Base Hawaii, Obama's motorcade passed a few dozen protesters holding
signs with slogans including "Drones: Unethical and Illegal," "U.S.
Bases Out" and "Close Guantanamo Now." Others expressed their
opposition to genetically modified foods.
It marked a second day of peaceful protest surrounding Obama, who is
spending a two-week vacation in Kailua with wife Michelle, daughters
Malia and Sasha, the first lady's mother, Marian Robinson, and the
family's Portuguese Water Dogs, Bo and Sunny.
On Friday evening, as many as 27 protesters turned out to
demonstrate against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact being
negotiated between the United States and several Asian and South
American countries.
Opponents of TPP say the agreement is being written to benefit large
multinational corporations.
"Other than a friendly 'shaka sign' from the president as he drove
by in his motorcade, we have not received a formal response from the
White House," said Mike Hasselle of the MoveOn Honolulu Council, one
of the organizers of the action.
Obama has received mostly a warm reception in and around Honolulu,
where he was born and spent much of his boyhood.
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Hundreds of onlookers swelled around his motorcade for about four
blocks on Friday night after the Obama family dined at Nobu, an
award-winning Japanese fusion restaurant, in Waikiki.
As the motorcade pulled away for the 15-mile (24-km) drive back to
Kailua, the crowds clapped, cheered and waved, snapping photographs
with their cellphones.
(Reporting by Ros Krasny, Suzanne Roig and Ikaika Hussey;
editing by
Peter Cooney)
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