10/21/2008
Obama Leaving Campaign Trail to Be with Ailing Grandmother
Barack Obama's grandmother Madelyn Dunham has apparently fallen gravely ill and Obama will stop campaigning from Thursday to Saturday to fly to Hawaii and be with her, according to campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs:
"In the last few weeks her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. [Dunham has always been one of the most important people in his life. Along with his mother and his grandfather, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born to the moment he left for college. The decision that Sen. Obama is making to go to Hawaii underscores the seriousness of the situation."
Dunham is 85. She is, essentially, his last parent. Michelle Obama will attend some campaign events in his absence.
Posted 7:55 AM EST by Andy Towle in Barack Obama, Election 2008, Hawaii, News | Permalink
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She was in the hospital recently but is now at home which sounds like a Hospice situation.
:-(
Been there with my grandfather, it was rough. BUT Hospice was/is the greatest thing ever with wonderful people helping out at the end of a loved ones life.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Oct 21, 2008 9:34:52 AM
An honorable act from an honorable man.
Let's see how the Right spins this one.
Posted by: Okie | Oct 21, 2008 11:06:46 AM
I was thinking the same thing. This may well be the one thing the right can't turn upside down.
Posted by: tobal | Oct 21, 2008 11:27:02 AM
I wish them all well, but basically he is signaling to McCain that he's so far ahead in this race that he has time to do this. He must be entirely confident of victory now.
Posted by: anon | Oct 21, 2008 12:47:55 PM
anon
Per many repubs and pollsters = YEPP
It isn't even a question of winning anymore but rather of how big of a win. Just a win or a landslide win sweeping in tons of dems to congress on Obama's coat tails.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Oct 21, 2008 1:48:50 PM
Although it may be in poor taste to say this, Obama's Grandmother's illness is a good thing for Obama in political terms.
It humanizes him, when some people find him rather unemotional. It causes pictures of his White Grandmother to be shown on the news, which reinforces his bi-racial roots, which may matter to some people. (Not me.) And it makes it harder for McCain to make nasty, venomous personal attacks without sounding insensitive - although this won't stop McCain from doing that. When he is well on his way to losing, he will do anything.
Posted by: gr8guyca | Oct 21, 2008 2:17:23 PM
EXACTLY, Gr8guy.
Plus all of America gets to contrast Obama suspending his campaign for two days to be with his critically ill grandmother in Hawaii with McCain's calculated, cynical, failed stunt suspension to try and garner some political advantage from the financial crisis.
Posted by: 24play | Oct 21, 2008 2:32:06 PM