Obama said he can do more for the people of Hawaii because he grew up here.

Two days after Hillary Clinton did a live satellite interview on KGMB9 (click here for that interview), we sat down her rival Barack Obama who is winning the primary race so far.

KGMB9'S STACY LOE: "Good evening senator and that you for joining us."

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: "Thank you so much for having me."

LOE: "This is your home state and we get the feeling that people want to see you here, but you're not coming. Is that because you're confident you'll win here?"

OBAMA: "Well, part of it is that obviously we have a terrific group of surrogates in Hawaii; my sister, Neil Abercrombie, others that are working actively in Hawaii. We've put a terrific grassroots organization on the ground and the fact is that there some other places like Wisconsin where we're a little further behind and we have to make sure we're focusing our energies on those places where we need to do some catch up work. So it’s not that I'm taking Hawaii for granted. It's just that relative to where we are at here in Wisconsin, we thought that is was important for me to be here. I promise you if I had a choice of being in 80 degree weather right now or 10 degree weather, which is what it was today here in Wisconsin, I think you know which I'd choose."

LOE: "Absolutely… And what are your biggest concerns for Hawaii?"

OBAMA: "Well, I think that growing up in Hawaii, it really is paradise and it brings together so many different cultures into this wonderful melting pot. But I do think the cost of living for the ordinary Hawaiian is really difficult. And I think even though the economy has been stronger over the last five years or so, now as we see recession starting to potentially set in, not just on the mainland, but perhaps in Asia as well, people are worried about hanging onto their jobs and the costs of everything from healthcare to college education to gas at the pump are crippling on people. So what we want to do is provide some tax breaks to ordinary people who are making less than $75,000 a year or less, middle class tax cuts. For senior citizens, we want to reduce their tax burden if they make less than $50,000. We want to provide an additional mortgage deduction for people who don’t itemize on their income tax returns that will have the effect of lowering the interest rate on the mortgage for people who are dealing with very expensive housing costs in Hawaii. And I think we want to put together the kinds of energy policies that over the long term will start reducing our dependency on foreign oil that will reduce our cost for gasoline in Hawaii. So those are issues that I think we have to look at. I also want to encourage the mass transit system that has been proposed for Hawaii because I think the last time I was there traffic going out to the North Shore and Mililani was just terrible."

LOE: "Senator, there are questions about whether we can afford to pay for system. Even after raising our excise tax. Would you support additional federal funding if our lawmakers request it?"

OBAMA: "Well, I think that it is important for the federal government to encourage and match local governments that are making a commitment to mass transit. This is something that is in our national security interests and so I hope that we can work together to promote the kind of energy efficiencies that are going to be so important not only to our economy and national security, but also the environment of Hawaii. You can't continue to be pumping greenhouse gases and smog into the atmosphere and not have a long term effect on what is Hawaii's most important natural resource."

Click here to see Part II of our interview with Sen. Obama