Presidential candidate Barack Obama left the campaign trail for two days this week to visit his seriously ill grandmother in Hawaii, the Democratic candidate’s spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said on Monday. “Senator Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn 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 until the moment he left for college. As he said at the Democratic Convention, she poured everything she had into him,” said Gibbs in a statement. “Recently, his Grandmother has become ill, and in the last few weeks, her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious. It is for that reason that Senator Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her.” The campaign is set to resume on Saturday.
Madelyn Dunham, 85, helped raise Obama. In a campaign ad earlier this year, the White House hopeful described Dunham as the daughter of a Midwest oil company clerk who "taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland." She is also the "white grandmother" to whom he referred in a speech on race at the time he was pressed on his relationship with his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama said he could no more disown Wright than he could his grandmother – who once expressed her fear of black men who passed her on the street.
Obama's Thursday and Friday schedule had him headed to the battleground states of Wisconsin and Ohio. Polls show him as being ahead in both states. Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that on Friday his wife, Michelle Obama would represent her husband in Ohio, according to People magazine.
Poor thing; she probably waited her entire life to see her grandson realise his dreams. Hopefully, she will get a chance to not only see him become President of the US, but to also see him make some very pivotal changes during his presidency as well. Keep the Obama family in your thoughts and prayers...
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