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."
LMAO. I don’t buy it either. Obama/Biden lie blatantly, which will hurt the politics in our country in the future. It used to be that a politician had to spin the rationale behind a vote, while now he can just deny it ever happened.
Where does this info come from, that TV is reporting? From the grandmother herself? No. From the Obama campaign people.
People who, like Obama himself, are driven, the kind of people whose eyes glow green in the dark with their hunger for power. The kind of people in whose mouths dry ice would neither melt nor sublimate.
We have elections to protect ourselves from people like these.
I admire your Christian charity, but considering who is involved here, and the kind of people we're dealing with (the grandmother excepted), you are being naive, and we are not being cynical enough. After all, this guy is about to screw us all. He's got Republicans flocking to his banner, bringing him praise and endorsements. He is getting over on some of the brightest people in the GOP, and you're worried about his feelings?
This guy wants to bring down and field-dress a great nation. His power lust is oozing out of his pores and shining on his skin like sweat. No, no Mr. Rogers tea and sympathy for him.
And I seriously doubt whether his grandmother is as ill as the TV newsdorks say she is. This story has "cover" all over it, as our fellow FReeper suggested.
There's no hurry.
It took Jesus four days to get to Lazarus.
If John McCain waited 4 days to finally go see his dying grandmother, The Main Street Media, let alone the Daily Kos, would be all over the effort to portray him as a heartless S.O.B.
I think that the suspicious part is that he is waiting until Thursday night to see his grandmother and he announced it on Monday night. There is a big rally for him here in Madison on Thursday and it will make good press with lots of adoring bodies proclaiming him the ONE.
I would be a lot more compassionate about this trip if it didn’t coincide with the birth certificate questions and he went immediately to see his grandmother, who raised him when he found out that she was ill. Like everything about this facade, something doesn’t quite compute.
I just noticed your comment -- I am very sorry to hear it. Please don't take anything I've posted too personally, but believe me, you and your family belong in a whole different category of humanity that that freakshow that we call presidential politics.
I once met and talked to a man -- a human-resources professional -- who did some work in Reagan-era D.C., to try to repair dysfunctional relationships at Interior Department among the political appointees working for Anne Burford Gorsuch (remember her?). He made many of the same observations I just tossed out about power-seekers: Yale graduates, with MBA's or master's degrees in poli sci, taking "nothingburger" jobs (Gorsuch coined that one) and eating beanie weenie on rock-bottom salaries, just so they could get their hands on policy. These are truly bent human beings we're talking about.
Remember, most of the Democratic presidential nominees of the last 16 years have come from broken families. They aren't like most of the rest of us, and they are not like other people who come from broken families but somehow manage to put things together for themselves and mend. Those people are broken still, but in much greater degree than most people can imagine. People like that are truly scary human beings. They're more like Pol Pot or Idi Amin than they are like the average man on the street.
Sorry this is nothing more then a sympathy play for the white grandmother he threw under the bus. First the Adam Clayton Powell coronation by the propaganda minsitry over th eweekend and now we the his quest for the sympathy vote. LIBERAL SCUM !
The sudden trip to Hawaii is odd- particularly since his grandmother is out of the hospital and if it were truly urgent- you’d think he’d be on the plane last night.
At the same time- it may be she’s relatively stable- but won’t make it til the election or close to it and so he’s going this weekend to say good-bye.
I tend not to think he’s going for COLB related business- it’s too obvious and his every move is watched and covered. If something needs fixing with the COLB issue- it’s done from the inside with plenty of $$ or promises of other rewards- and in a way that gives him plausible deniability.
Bill Clinton is a rank amateur compared with Obama.
Maybe the lying scumbag needs to go home to buy soem more dope and coccain.
BTW, I'm a lousy gambler. ;)
Your post is the best I remember reading. After all, he is the Black Messiah and should have no problem raising the dead. Good job. ;0)
Nah, I just recognized your screen name.
When discussing conservative matters, I may be passionate especially when talking to liberals like yourself.
Oh, really? Lessee, here's a roomful of conservatives, and you came in and started high-sticking people with tart remarks that betrayed animus but no intelligence. You with the ACLU?
I retired to take care of my ailing parents. I know what you are going through. It ain’t no picnic....especially when you know the inevitable outcome. Be strong, make her as comfortable as possible and try to enjoy what moments with her that you can.
God be with you.
why take time off, she’s right there under the bus ...
Bill Clinton is now doubly glad that Hillary was cheated out of the nomination, else he would have been the October sympathy sacrifice.
Exactly.
BTTT.
Since just about every word coming from O has been a lie I am sure you can understand the cynicism of those making comments here.
If you feel that O’s word is unassailable then that too is your right.
Most of us know better.
Obama is 4 more years of Bush tax and spend. He’s McSame!
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