Mix of work and play for Obama’s aides, reporters

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama is vacationing in Hawaii. But presidents are never truly off work — and neither are his aides or hordes of reporters following every move of the world’s most scrutinized person.

Obamas are staying in a beachfront home in Hawaii. The palm-shaded, seaside resort and spa is housing more than three dozen White House staffers and journalists who followed the president on his annual vacation, the Washington Post reported.

The whole crew, the media and staffers, is hoping that no major controversy or news breaks out, since that would mean more work and far less play.

“Sometimes it’s long hours, but it’s Hawaii,” said Ed Henry, a longtime CNN’s White House correspondent.

The atmosphere is ideal for relaxing, the president isn’t wearing a suit, so neither is almost anyone else.

Henry, who also covered the Bush White House, is here for the third straight year. He trades his traditional news correspondent garb of a suit and tie for an endless variety of multi-coloured Hawaiian shirts and flip-flops, the Post said.

“I have a whole new wardrobe because of President Obama,” Henry said.

In Hawaii, Obama also obliges. He intentionally makes almost no major announcements, and most journalists don’t even see him most of the days they are here.

Reporters take turns assuming the routine duty of literally following Obama, chronicling when he goes to exercise at a military base near his rental home or takes his daughters to buy shave ice.

But there is work to be done.

The public and the editors back at the base still have a lot of interest in the president, so reporters frequently file dispatches on Obama’s activities, such as when he went to church here Sunday.

Obama meets with aides, such as Nick Rasmussen, a counter-terrorism adviser, and Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, on national security developments.

Last year, when Obama was holidaying in Hawaii an airline passenger attempted to detonate explosives on a plane bound for Detroit. That incident turned the Christmas trip upside down, as aides scrambled to learn more about the so-called underwear bomber.

Many White House staffers, this time, are better prepared.

Nick Shapiro, a White House assistant press secretary for homeland security issues, has bought a waterproof cover for his BlackBerry so that he can go surfing but keep his device with him at all times.

“So far, this trip has been more relaxing than last year,” Shapiro said. “But we are all prepared and ready should something happen, and we are all operating under the posture that of course something could happen.”

But some are not that lucky.

Yunji De Nies, an on-air correspondent for ABC News, says she can’t go surfing at all, with or without a waterproof BlackBerry cover. “I have to be camera-ready all the time,” she said. “I can’t go from taking a swim to standing in front of the camera.”