Now that favorite son Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Presidential nomination, curiosity about the candidate and what made him what he is will only become more intense.

One key, probably still not fully explored, is the impact of Obama’s childhood and schooling in Hawaii as well as his years in Indonesia with his mother and step-father.

He talks about those two experiences in his first book. But the biographical focus (and probably rightly so) has been on Obama’s years as a community organizer and then up-and-coming politician in Chicago. That’s where Obama the candidate took shape.

Still, the impact of those earlier days at Punahou and in Indonesia cannot be ignored. All that will eventually get fleshed out. But for the moment, one of the best reflections on what it means to be an “outsider” growing up and going to school in Hawaii appeared in the most unlikely place: The Portland Oregonian.

The article is by an emeritus professor of English at Southern Oregon University named Michael Baughman. It is a sensitive look at the “process of maturation” that Baughman believes he and Obama might share.

Read the article HERE. Do you think it helps explain to the rest of the world what the experience of growing up in multi-cultural Hawaii means? Does it help others understand who Obama is?

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