Obama offers appreciation, Merry Christmas to military
President-elect releases recorded message on Christmas Eve
President-elect Barack Obama offered appreciation to the U.S. military on Christmas Eve in a recorded message and then asked children of uniformed troops if they had their wish lists ready.
Obama and wife, Michelle, made their early morning trek to Marine Corps Base Hawaii just northeast of Honolulu as they had done during the last three days. After about an hour at the base on Wednesday where he went inside a gym for a workout, he walked over to greet more than 60 people who waited for him. The president-elect shook hands while onlookers took pictures with their cell phones and digital cameras.
“You guys got your Christmas list?” Obama asked one person standing in the makeshift ropeline. He asked another: “Hey man, what’s going on?”
Earlier in the day, his aides released a recorded message of appreciation to the military “serving their second, third or even fourth tour of duty.”
“This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger,” Obama said in the message, set to air Saturday morning. “In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.”
The Obamas during past years spent the December holidays visiting Obama’s maternal grandmother, who died Nov. 2, before Obama’s historic Nov. 4 victory. The Obamas on Tuesday had a private memorial service for Madelyn Payne Dunham, known to friends as “Toot,” who helped raise him.
Aides said the Obamas would open presents on Christmas morning and have a traditional dinner of ham and turkey in the evening.
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