Posted on 10/21/2008 1:50:27 AM PDT by LisaAnne
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama will leave the presidential campaign trail to visit his ailing 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii, whose health has deteriorated in recent weeks, an aide said on Monday.
With two weeks left in an intense battle for the White House, Obama will hold a campaign event in Indianapolis on Thursday and then fly to Hawaii to see his grandmother before returning to campaigning on Saturday, aide Robert Gibbs said.
"Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life," Gibbs said in a statement.
"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."
The campaign interruption comes as both candidates head into a final sprint for the November 4 election. Obama criticized Republican White House rival John McCain for a "say-anything, do-anything" political style as he launched a two-day tour to kick off early voting in Florida.
McCain told supporters in Missouri that "nothing is inevitable" and he could still beat Obama, who leads in national opinion polls as the pair began a frenzied race to the finish line.
Obama's former Democratic rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, joined the Illinois senator at a rally of 50,000 people in Orlando.
"In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over," Obama said. "We've seen it before. Hillary has been subject to it before.
"We're seeing again today -- ugly phone calls, misleading mail and TV ads, careless, outrageous statements -- all aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change," he said.
Obama noted McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, told reporters on Sunday that if she called the shots she would end the automated phone calls being made by McCain's campaign, including some that link Obama with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
"You have to work really hard to violate Gov. Palin's standards on negative campaigning," Obama said.
McCain defended the calls, shrugging off Palin's remarks in an interview to be aired on Tuesday morning.
"Well, Sarah is a maverick," McCain told CBS' "Early Show." "That robocall is absolutely accurate and by the way, Senator Obama's campaign is running robocalls as we speak."
Florida a battleground
Obama planned to spend two days in Florida to encourage voters to cast their ballots early in the battleground state, which has 27 electoral votes and is vital for either candidate in their quest for the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
Standing on stage next to Obama, Clinton highlighted the financial crisis as she urged Florida voters to choose Obama.
"Now is the time to close the deal for Barack Obama and close the book on eight years of failed Republican leadership," she said, linking McCain to President George W. Bush.
"Sending the Republicans to clean up the economic mess in Washington is like sending the bull to clean up the china closet." It was the third time Clinton and Obama have campaigned together since he clinched the Democratic nomination in June.
A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll showed Obama with a 6-point edge on McCain. A new CNN poll gave Obama a 5-point lead among likely voters, down from an 8-point edge two weeks ago. Other polls also showed a tightening race.
At a rally outside Kansas City, Missouri, McCain jumped on comments from Obama's running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, that Obama would be tested with an international crisis within six months of becoming president.
"We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars," McCain said.
"Senator Obama won't have the right response, and we know that because we've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign."
Obama touted his endorsement from Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said on NBC's "Today" a day after earning the endorsement of Powell, who is also a retired four-star general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether that's a good fit for him, is something we'd have to discuss."
unless he knows exactly when he’s shutting her down.
He lived and went to school in Indonesia for three or IIRC four years.
How come you’re so concerned that people are being “mean” to Obama?
I do not presume to speak for the other posters to whom your comments were addressed, nor is the following meant with any personal animis toward you.
I do not believe for one second that Zero has done *anything* in the past two years that was not directly related to making himself the next POTUS. I believe that there is no one in his life that is not a prop or chattel.
As I was driving home tonight I heard the news on the radio and before learning of Andy Martin’s upcoming expose’ I said to myself “This is crap, this is staged for sympathy or there’s something up in Hawaii that he’s got to go and cover personally.”
I believe that we are dealing with a manipulator that is several levels of magnitude beyond the klintoons.
I doubt that's the facts. She was released from the hospital last week AND Obama isn't planning on flying in until Thursday night (or 3 1/2 days after his campaign stated she was "gravely ill").
Ok, I get your point. But what’s winning an election got to do with a dying grandmother ? If John McCain’s mother who is what, 96, fell ill and he left the campaign trail to attend to her, can you imagine how crazy people would go here if the libs at Daily Kos said it was a campaign ploy ?
I just saw a tv report that says she’s about to die. Everything else about Obama can be on the table, but a death of a relative should be offlimits.
Attack his stance on abortion, the economy or whatever you want but in this matter I think Freepers should be showing a little compassion, that’s all.
I agree with you. He is more self serving, more of a liar, more of a user, more hard left, more of a hypocrite and a whole bunch of other things than even the Clintons, or the klintoons. And I never thought I’d almost think sort of fondly about them...!
Maybe I have concern because my mother is dying as I write this.
I wonder if he has to sign anything that needs to be witnessed by a Hawaiin notary in order to keep that birth certificate released.
Amen.
Hope as he can report back to his wife...she will be able to get the kids home to give Gramman on love touch each before she goes home to the Good Lord.
Caren Bohan is the author of the article
If she was that sick why would he wait till Thursday to fly to Hawaii to see her? He should have left immediately!
But the problem is not with his ailing grandmother, who I feel very sorry for.
People here are justly critcizing Obama, and he is not off limits at all. The points have been made well, but just this one bears repeating at least - if she is near death, why the hell isn’t he on a plane to Honolulu RIGHT NOW????
He is a cold hearted psychopathic megalomaniac user.
You sound like you have human emotions. Don’t mistakenly project them onto the Obamafuhrer. He just wants to control all of our lives after he impoverishes us and subjugates us to Islam.
See post #7. I suspect, in order to answer your question we would have to know a bit more about gleeaikin. Is gleeaikin a Marxist with Narcissistic Personality Disorder? Well Obama is and we have already seen him throw granny under the bus defending Jeremiah Wright.
It is all about Obama. He is the one we have been waiting for and the sick will now be healed and the oceans will recede. If you are not Obama, then you are only worth whatever he can get from you to achieve his goals. I think it is good to ask questions and that is all gleeaikin was doing. Nothing was said about the relative in question. I am sure gleeaikin wishes her well as do you and I. This is about Obama and people better start understanding who and what he is. I question the motives of his every move.
His grandmother did not desert him when BOTH his parents did. NOTE what a lousy grandson he is...she is ill, and he cant make it till THURSDAY??? There’s more to this story.
John Edwards, also, can anyone recall Edwards being a Capitalist with tax payer funds? Poor Berry, couldn’t beat McCain from Saddleback, couldn’t gain in the polls, everybody is finally getting to know his past associations, Biden is got a little press following, life is tough enough, and Granny being sick is become very troublesome, distracting
WHY then is he not going there now? WHo in their right mind believes this story. If she is near death, why wait 3 days to see her? This is the same grandmother he threw under the bus in his racist speech... The same grandmother he visited on his vacation with campaign staff and NO KIDS or Michelle. There is more to this story. Biden leaving I could understand, as he did so immediately. Obama is a fraud and a cynic. WHY announce something 3 days ahead of time?
I didn’t say that, did I.
Well said, MC
Thoughts and prayers to you during this difficult time, Somerville.
What do YOU think is more important....seeing to a DYING GRANDMA that helped RAISE you, or a RALLY???
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