During the August 11 edition of NPR's Morning Edition, NPR news analyst Cokie Roberts asserted that Sen. Barack Obama's vacation to Hawaii, where he was born, “makes him seem a little bit more exotic,” and characterized Hawaii as “a somewhat odd place to be doing it,” despite also asserting, “I know that he is from Hawaii, he grew up there, his grandmother lives there.”

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported on August 9 that "[a]fter delivering a campaign speech, Sen. Barack Obama's first stop on his Hawaii vacation was a visit to his grandmother's Makiki apartment, where he also lived during his youth."

Roberts also criticized Obama during the August 10 edition of ABC's This Week, acknowledging that “Hawaii is a state” but stating that Obama's vacation there “has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place.”

From the August 11 edition of NPR's Morning Edition:

RENEE MONTAGNE (co-host): Now, Obama is spending the week on vacation in Hawaii. He's taking a vacation, he says, because it's, you know, good for his family, but is it a good point in the presidential campaign?

ROBERTS: It's a little rough to be doing it at this point although, he -- you know, I think he is feeling somewhat secure, but Hawaii is also a somewhat odd place to be doing it. I know that he is from Hawaii, he grew up there, his grandmother lives there, but he's made such a point about how he is from Kansas and, you know, the boy from Kansas and Kenya and it makes him seem a little bit more exotic than perhaps he would want to come across as at this stage in the presidential campaign.