As Peter Nicholas with the AP reports: 

As Republicans who want to be president slog through chilly Iowa in the run-up to next week’s caucuses, the man who is president moves from one enviable sun-splashed outing to the next.

The contrast between President Barack Obama’s week in Hawaii and that of the Republican candidates couldn’t be more vivid, as the first family celebrates the holidays in a multimillion-dollar rental house near the turquoise waters of Kailua Beach.

On Wednesday, Obama golfed at a course carved out of a forest in eastern Oahu while, in Muscatine, Iowa, Mitt Romney took a swipe at rival Ron Paul over his stance on Iranian nuclear weapons.

The day before, Newt Gingrich accused Paul of avoiding “reality,” while Obama and his daughters released four green sea turtles into Hanauma Bay, a snorkeling paradise.

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