obama's grandma ill

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-20-2008
obama's grandma ill
15
Mon, 10-20-2008 - 10:30pm

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is canceling nearly all his campaign events Thursday and Friday to fly to Hawaii to visit his suddenly gravely ill 85-year-old grandmother, a spokesman said.

Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Obama's plane that Madelyn Payne Dunham, who helped raise Obama, was released from the hospital late last week. But he said her health had deteriorated "to the point where her situation is very serious."

Events originally planned for Madison, Wis., and Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday will be replaced with one in Indianapolis before he makes the long flight to Hawaii. On Friday, Obama's wife, Michelle, will sub for Obama at rallies in Akron and Columbus, in Ohio, said campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Obama was expected to resume campaigning on Saturday, at an undecided location in the West, she said.

"Sen. Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life, along with his mother and his grandfather," Gibbs said. "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 Sen. Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her."

Citing the family's desire for privacy, Gibbs would not discuss the nature of Dunham's illness. It seemed likely that she was close to death, as Gibbs said that "everyone understands the decision that Sen. Obama is making." Dunham turns 86 on Sunday.

It could be a momentous one in his bid for the White House against Republican John McCain, with Election Day just two weeks away on Nov. 4.

In a campaign ad this year, Obama described his Dunham as the daughter of a Midwest oil company clerk who "taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland" — things like "accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated."

She's also the "white grandmother" he referred to in a speech on race.

Obama last visited Hawaii in August, when he spent a week on vacation after he had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

> so sad, but he's doing the right thing to go be with her now ...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-25-2008
Wed, 10-22-2008 - 7:40am

Except that he didn't talk about how prejudiced she was or that she was a racist.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2008
Wed, 10-22-2008 - 8:38am

I know exactly what he was trying to say.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2008
Wed, 10-22-2008 - 8:40am

Sounds like my grandmother...and she had planned on voting for Obama.


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-26-2003
Wed, 10-22-2008 - 9:46am

first, i can't believe you would presume to judge what is in his heart for his family. not anymore than you can judge what is in my heart for my family and what my priorities are.

second, i loved my grandparents deeply. they were Old South and very prejudiced. if they had raised me, i would believe that "negroes" were a different species. my parents were a different generation, and my mother was strictly opposed to racism - but there were remnants in my father. the same kind that Obama described in his grandmother. i loved all these people but was able to separate out their thinking. is telling the truth about them "throwing them under the bus"? does it deny all the other virtues they lived? all their love and generosity towards me? am i any less grateful for everything they did for me?

if not his own grandmother who he obviously loves and admires, then WHO is he able to use as an example of the insidious racial bias in this country? he would be excoriated for any example.

Bea

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2008
Wed, 10-22-2008 - 9:49am

Thank you for nicely putting my thoughts into words (so I don't get TOS'd!).

 

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