Obama to halt campaigning for grandmother
This 1979 file photo shows Barack Obama at his high school graduation in Hawaii with his maternal grandparents, Stanley Armour Dunham and his wife, Madelyn Payne. (Obama campaign photo)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Barack Obama will suspend campaigning for 24 hours later this week to visit his ailing, 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii, his campaign announced tonight.
Robert Gibbs, one of the senator's top aides, told reporters aboard the campaign plane tonight that Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was very ill, and that Obama had decided to cancel events on Thursday planned for Madison, Wis. and Des Moines. Instead he will head to Honolulu on Thursday, after a morning event in Indianapolis.
Dunham, who helped raise Obama in Hawaii, is one of his closest living relatives. Gibbs declined to provide details about her illness, citing her privacy, but said that Obama's visit was an indication that it was "very serious." Gibbs said Dunham was at her home, after being released late last week from the hospital.
"Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life," Gibbs said in statement. "Along with his mother and his grandmother, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born until the moment he left for college. As he said at the Democratic National Convention, she poured everything she had into him."
Obama has long made spending time with his grandmother -- his mother's mother -- a priority, visiting her nearly every year around the Christmas holiday. A question that seems unanswerable at this point is whether her condition is serious enough that she might not see him win the presidency, if he does.
Gibbs said Obama would return to the campaign trail on Saturday, though it's unclear where and when that will be.
UPDATE: His campaign just announced that Obama's wife, Michelle, will campaign in his place in Akron and Columbus, Ohio on Friday, and that Obama will campaign in the West upon his return from Hawaii.
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My prayers are with the Dunhams and Obamas. Hang in there, Madelyn.
after the sympathy vote is he?
You know Obama has to thank his Maternal Grandmother for who he is today. Her Birthday is Sunday...yet he is flying out SATURDAY to resume his campaign. Go figure. I'll bet he extends his stay in Hawaii and there will be a big cake. He'll say...some excuse..for the change. His current plans are a Testament to his CHARACTER. Vote Accordingly.
it shows that your man of principals hope you win the elections,wish i could vote for you but i am living in labrador city newfoundland.may god bless your grandmother and let her live to see you president of united states
God Bless you Sen Obama. for loving your grandmother sooo much. I myself am a grandmother of 4 a grandmothers love is deeper for her grandchildren then her children. I'm living proof. I my self had a pacemaker placed this summer, not being able to work, nor help with my grandchilden. I was a allied health instructor. no ins coverage. I pray every day that our Lord helps us to choose with our heart, and that we can celebrate Nov 4 2008 for Sen.Obama as president of the free america.
God Bless you and your beautiful family
Norma Jean Mousoulias RMA,BS,AHI,ACCE
NObama Blather....Isn't this the old "typical racist " white woman ( the woman who actually tried to raise his sorry ass ( failing miserably, I might add, but not from her effort ) after his SORRY Mama AND his SORRY Dad ran off ) that NObama threw under the bus? Yup... that is her.....
Just another scam. He's going to try and cover his butt for the lawsuits that are out on him that he is trying to have dismissed. Obama is not a US citizen. Get the facts at www.obamacrimes.com
I wish Obama''s grandmother speedy recovery hope she does make it through to the Elections
Obama's Grandmother's Birthday is SUNDAY...Why is he flying back out to his campaign on SATURDAY??? The woman who raised him...not important enough to stay...actions speak volumes about one's CHARACTER. Vote Accordingly. PS When I tried to submit this earlier, it said that the Blogger would have to approve it. Talk about the First Ammendment....go figure
May she have a refuah shlemah! My thoughts and prayers are with his family. I too am a single mom, who could not make it without the integral support of my mother and sister. Outside of me, they are the two most important people in my son's life.
Bless you, Senator. Our prayers are with you! Give your Grandmother the best of from the American People.
Obama is probably tiffed he HAD to take time out to visit his white ailing grandmother. You know, the white he would like to purge. Hey maybe he can make a political photo op out of it. HEADLINES: "Obama has Mercy on "Old Typical "(the one he would like to forget about) White Grandmother"
you and your family are in our prayers Sen. Obama
bama is probably tiffed he HAD to take time out to visit his white ailing grandmother. You know, the white he would like to purge. Hey maybe he can make a political photo op out of it. HEADLINES: "Obama has Mercy on "Old Typical "(the one he would like to forget about) White Grandmother"
His Highness Obama must have gotten the word that he is over exposed and people are getting sick of hearing about him. Thank goodness - a break.
well i don't blame him one bit because i would have done the same thing.because i just lost my grandmather almost a year ago and she just about raised me and i was very close to her and i miss her very much.so he needs to see her before it's to late and he don't have that time with her.
my prayers go out the Dunham and Obama families. I hope she pulls through.
Wonder if he will have time to pick up a certified copy of his birth certificate.
I hope Obama's grandmother gets better.
I wonder how much respect we can expect from the other campaign toward this "terrorist, socialist, anti-American, not like us" person.
I voted this morning and was so overcome with the magnitude of this election that I found myself crying on walking back to my car. Lots of feelings came to the surface and, amazingly, one of them was the feeling that Barrack Obama now had almost an entire nation of "family", mamas, papas, sisters, and brothers and a world of cousins. I had no idea that later today, we would learn that he was losing his Grandmother, the woman who raised him most of his life. She did a good job, an outstanding job! I hope he is able to be with her to the end and I hope we remember that, while we respect him as President elect, we are Family for him, too.
Joe the plumber (a right wing-fake, not a plumber) makes $40K, not $280K and Joe will save under Obama compared to McCain. He isnt really buying the company. The company made $100K last year not $280K and will get a lower tax rate under Obama. Joe isnt even a plumber. The GOP wants to portray itself as being about the common man but their tax plan will ONLY help the rich and the super rich.
The lies that Obama will raise your taxes is based on one truth. He will resume the tax rates for the rich that were under Clinton and roll back the tax CUT that Bush gave the rich and super rich. Joe and all the real plumbers will get a nice tax cut, under Obama's plan.
My prayers are with Senator Obama and his family.
I feel awful for Senator Obama. He's so close to his moment in history, and she won't be there. Any win now will feel so empty...
my thoughts and prayers are with the senator and his family. If something tragic does happen before his election, we who have faith know that she will be watching hi, and will still be as proud as she can be
To Commentors 2,3,6,7,9,12,14,18......Really thoughtful! Typical slimy, disgusting republican reactions! No wonder people are turned off by your 2 candidates. No sympathy or empathy for anyone! God help all of you
You right wingnuts have got to be kidding me. The man goes to visit his ailing family member, hell the person who raised him and you bash him. So much for your "family values". You bloody Neocons need to all be taken out to the wood shed and have your mother beat some respect into you.
To Commentors 2,3,6,7,9,12,14,18- May the same mercy be shown to you two-fold.
Some vicious comments here. There are even people who say he's going there to find and destroy the document in her apartment that says he was born in Kenya. Or Indonesia. Or on the moon.
You know, the day after Sen. Obama gave his wonderful speech on race and some of the rightwingnuts started accusing him of "throwing his own grandmother under the bus" -- that was the day I knew I would always support Obama.
He didn't throw anyone under the bus, neither his regrettably hate-filled pastor, or his grandmother who freely admitted that she sometimes stuggled with racial feeling, or angry black radicals, or angry white racists, or you or me. He admitted that both races have legitimate as well as illegitimate grievances against the other, and that we must try to put all of that behind us.
God bless him, his grandmother, and all of us. Some of the letters here are truly touching.
I like the idea that he is about to increase the size of his family exponentially.
Please shutup all of you mean nasty people. His grandmother is old and dying. My Mother is dying of lung cancer. She does not have much time to live.I cannot imagine the pressure he must be under. To all the people that are working for him and then his grandmother too. She knows he made the right choice.
I don't believe Obama is going to Hawaii to search his grandmother's apartment for his Kenya birth certificate. He's got enough thugs to do that. I believe his grandmother is ailing. Hope she gets better soon BUT I believe Obama is going to Hawaii to drum up a fake birth certificate. Hope he gets caught. America deserves better than "that one".
^^^ 30 Woow! what a brilliant idea... NOT!
birth certificate... some ppl dont need some stuff to probe more citizenship than others, and have more patriotic thougts than the one who claim disgustign thinngs like that... what are you doing fo your country today?
god bless Obama grandmother.
Pace.