Hawaii was naturally shaken by the untimely death of  popular Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste this week.

We expect our elected leaders to stay around forever, and generally they do. Were it not for term limits, office-holders in Hawaii likely could hold on to their post for life, or at least until they decide to volunarily give it up. That’s certainly true in Congress, where no full-term incumbent has ever been turned out of office through election. In fact, the only transitions in Congress were when a member left voluntarily (Oren Long, Patsy Mink, Cec Heftel) for retirement or to seek another office) or through death, which was the case when Sen. Spark Matsunaga and Rep. Patsy Mink died in office.

We sometimes look down on other countries with their “presidents-for-life” and dynastic politics. But in our own way, we have the same system here. Is it just human nature to want to hold on to what we know, including elected politicians?

It’s not clear whether the folks in Washington D.C. known what a “chickenskin” moment is, but they surely experienced one this week during the funeral for respected television journalist Tim Russert.

Hawaii Congresswoman Mazie Hirono reports that the emotional service concluded with a playing of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s ukulele version of “Over the Rainbow.”

As the song played, she said, an unusual double rainbow appeared over Washington to the astonishment of  just about everyone.  Hirono said the double rainbow, familiar to folks in Hawaii, is just never seen in the Nation’s Capital.

After the service, Hirono said, people came up to her to talk about Israel’s song, ask where they could get it or who the artist was  and to share their wonder over the double rainbow.   Hirono has that song and others on her iPod for long plane rides back and forth to Hawaii, so she was more than familiar with it.

You can see an msnbc report on the funeral and the rainbow HERE.

To learn more about Israel and his music, go to The Advertiser’s special report on the artist HERE 

Apparently multi-ethnic, globally schooled, Hawaii born and bred Barack Obama just isn’t complex or exotic enough for folks.

The darker corners of the blogosphere keep looking for something mysterious or unknown about the candidate. Aren’t the facts enough?

The Obama campaign is concerned enough to launch its own anti-rumor website, but that’s a little like Whack-a-Mole. Knock down one and another pops up.

A favorite among the conspiracy theorists is the absence of a birth certificate for Obama, who came into the world on Aug. 4, 1961. The Obama campaign has provided a copy of the certificate, and you can see it HERE.

But apparently that’s not good enough. Conspiracy folks want the original dog-eared version, apparently.

If they get it, they’ll just move on to the next goofy rumor. Apparently looking at what the candidate actually says and promises to do is just too much work.

(And we’ll thank you not to follow up with jokes about the McCain birth certificate being written on papyrus)

So now, according to reporter Peter Boylan, a trickle of challengers has begun to emerge in the upcoming elections for Honolulu City Council and Mayor.

But the numbers are few and the folks picking up papers to run are generally unknown.

The liklihood that most, if not all, of the faces running Honolulu City Hall will still be there in November once the elections are over.

Is that a bad thing? It’s easy to dismiss the lack of challengers as apathy or fear of the power of incumbents. But it is just as easy to assume the lack of interest in the races reflects a general level of comfort, it not excitement, over the people now holding office.

Yes, we like a vibrant and thoughtful contest for public office. In time, many will come to recognize that the everlasting campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton gave voters an unparalled look at the candidates, their thinking and their reactions toward each other.

But that was pretty much an aberration. Even presidential contests often devolve into a race between the consensus expected winner and a challenger or two.

The folks pushing the “clean elections” agenda argue that publicly financed elections will take the corrupting and distorting impact of big money out of politics. But the program might have another effect as well: If it wasn’t so expensive, maybe more people would take the time to test and challenge the people currently holding office.

No matter how well they are doing, they would be swell-served by a strong challenge and an opportunity to explain themselves in a public political context.

Stories on the passing of former University of Hawaii President Harlan Cleveland paint a picture of an extraordinally accomplished man: dip0lomat, scholar, author, journalist and more — all before he took over the reins at a troubled UH Manoa in 1969.

Oddly, Cleveland may be remembered over time not for his many accomplishments, but for the simple but profound idea contained in a single 1950 quote: “The revolution of rising expectations.”

This was the idea that creating expectatations (and perhaps the climate) for improvement in life or society is a powerful act. Once people know there is something better and are convinced they deserve it, they become a revolutionary force.

Cleveland was thinking globally when he said this. But the thought applies to his own tenure at the UH. The former diplomat came in when the campus was in turmoil over Vietnam and, at the same time, on the verge of major expansiona and improvement. With Gov. John A. Burns ready and willing to spend what it took to make the UH a first-class institution, Cleveland moved fast to open a law school, expand the medical school and expand the university’s reach statewide.

He didn’t get as far as he wanted, in part because the the pin-striped diplomat just couldn’t reach a comfortable accomodation with Hawaii lawmakers who expected a different kind of relationship with the university president.

So, ironically, Cleveland created a revolution of rising expectations for the state’s university, a revolution that has yet to fully accomplish its goals.