Plenty of ethusiasm and good spirits this morning as Hawaii’s Democrats get into the first full day of their state convention.

Former Honolulu Councilman Arnold Morgado is patiently chairing a session on rules and platform resolutions. There’s little to battle over, but delegates are having a good time anyway, debating finer points of parliamentary rules. Consider it a test run of delegate discipline for bigger stakes votes to come.

There was adoption of a new rule designed to  generate fresh money for the  people-rich but cash-poor  party . A proposal for mandatory party dues was set aside but a new plan to ask for a “voluntary” contribution of $25 per party member was accepted. If enough of those thousands of new party members drawn  in by the Barak Obama candidacy get the message, there will be lots of dough in the party treasury.

It’s good to hear that the citizen group Common Cause is revitalizing itself and will be back in the thick of the action, both nationally and in Hawaii.

The group has been quiet locally since 2002, although any number of splinter groups and individual activists have kept at it.

For several years in the mid-1980’s, the group was run well by Ian Lind, (see Tuesday’s entry) now known as prominent blogger. It was often the go-to organization for commentary or reaction to political news.

I remember well when the original letter from John Gardner announcing the formation of the national Common Cause arrived on my desk. It sounded good, but my journalist’s instinct immediately had me asking: What’s the hidden agenda here? It turned out there really wasn’t one, other than the agenda of empowering ordinary citizens to help make government more effective and more responsive.

If the revitalized group holds to that ideal, its credibility will be immediate. If it falls into the trap of pursuing a particular agenda — no matter how worthy on its own — it will be treated as just another lobbying group.

The Republican State Convention this past weekend offered a couple of interesting views on the future political prospects of the still-struggling party.

Despite controlling the governorship, the GOP has failed to make much of a visible dent in the state, where Democrats dominate at virtually every legislative level.

Convention managers were able to put down a mini-revolt from a number of delegates who believe the Hawaii Republican Party should be far more vividly conservative. The test case was a proposal to formally oppose the Hawaiian Recognition or “Akaka” bill. That’s a position right in the middle of mainstream conservative Republican thinking on the Mainland, but it would political poison in the Islands.

Gov. Linda Lingle has put considerable political capital into wooing Hawaiian votes to the Republican Party. That efforts includes strong administration support for the Akaka bill. She could hardly countenance the local party turning its back on the effort.

So party-building locally means keeping the GOP firmly in the moderate middle.

At the same time, however, Lingle said she is strongly behind the candidacy of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain and, in fact, will campaign nationally for him this fall.

Lingle admits McCain will have a “tough” campaign, and that holds true in spades in Hawaii where he likely will have to go face-to-face with a popular native son, Barak Obama.

So which Republican Party will Hawaii voters see this fall? The moderate GOP that Lingle was perceived to represent when she was first elected to office, or the  GOP that stands for (in Obama’s formulation, at any rate) the “Bush-McCain” wing of the party?

So there’s quite a bit of buzz about the possibility that Barack Obama might visit his home town this campaign season.

Obviously, the campaign is not about to confirm such an idea. In fact, they have been careful not even to act as if they know Obama will be the Democratic Party nominee.

But assuming he is nominated, a visit to Hawaii might make sense. It would be a great opportunity to show and tell this part of his biography. Obama could use the occasion to talk again about diversity and what he learned growing up in Hawaii. He likely would also use the occasion to buff up his military/Asia/security cred with visits to top commanders and military facilities and a speech — as some have speculated — at Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery where his grandfather is buried.

That’s the positive side. On the negative is the irreversible fact that Hawaii is a long way from any place else. Even the quickest visit would knock close to two days out of the campaign schedule, particularly if it involved an overnight stop.

That’s a lot of time in the pressure-cooker context of a national presidential campaign.

Obama’s campaign will undoubtedly refresh their memories of the first (and last) visit to Hawaii by a presidential candidate: Richard Nixon in 1960.

Hawaii and Alaska were brand new states that year and Nixon wanted to capitalize on that excitement by promising, during him nomination speech, that he would visit every one of the states during the campaign.

And so he did, including a stop in Hawaii where he gave one of his first post-convention speeches to a crowd at the Kahmehameha Shopping Center.

Hawaii loved it and very nearly gave its three electoral votes to Nixon. In the end, a series of recounts gave the votes to John Kennedy.

But commentators at the time wondered whether Nixon didn’t do himself more harm than good by trekking to remote Alaska and Hawaii when there were key swing states on the continent that should have had his undivided attention.

So a post-convention visit by Obama would be great. But it won’t happen if his handlers conclude he cannot afford the time. That decision cannot be made today.

Update (Monday):Sen Dan Akaka has emerged from his polite reticence to announce he, too, is endorsing Hawaii-born Barak Obama for president. He made the announcement Monday, which means all four high-profile elected superdelegates from Hawaii have made their choice. Three are for Obama while one, Sen, Daniel Inouye, remains loyal to Hillary Clinton.

Akaka said he is convinced Obama is the man to end the “plague” of partisan politics in America.

Also, while it didn’t make as big a news splash, Obama gained yet another superdelegate from Hawaii Monday when National Committeewoman Dolly Strazar also announced her vote for Obama. In a statement, Strazar said that while she held out on an uncommited stance as long as she could, he concluded it was time for the party to “pull together behind a single candidate.”

Strazar said she also likes the fact that Obama, who grew up in the Islands, instinctively knows the importance of “getting along” in a multicultural setting.These have been stressful days for Strazar, who has been fielding regular calls from both the Obama and Clinton camps as they scoured the nation for superdelegate votes.

Here’s what we said earlier on the superdelegate hunt in Hawaii: (more…)