Barack Obama to quit campaign trail to visit his sick grandmom

Barack Obama will cancel a pair of stops and leave the presidential campaign trail later this week to fly to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother, a spokesman announced Monday night.

The Democratic nominee says he will cease campaigning Thursday after an appearance in Indianapolis and resume his public appearances sometime Saturday at a location to be determined.

The campaign will keep operating in Obama's absence, with advertising and other activities continuing without interruption, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

The announcement was made at the end of a day of campaigning in Florida, where Obama planned two more stops Tuesday.

Reading from a statement as he stood in the aisle of Obama's chartered flight, Gibbs said Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, 85, "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."

Gibbs declined to elaborate on her condition, out of respect for her privacy.

(UPDATE: The campaign announced that Michelle Obama will hold events in place of her husband in Akron and Columbus, Ohio, on Friday. When Obama returns to the campaign trail on Saturday morning, he will head out West, a representative said.)

-- Mark Z. Barabak

Photo: Obama with his maternal grandparents at his high school graduation in 1979. Credit: Courtesy of the Obama campaign, via Associated Press.

Comments

[Kwame BK]

I am not much of a believer but just this once I pray that whoever it is that is up there make a live to at least see her grandson elected president of the USA...she deserves to witness the crowning moment!

[andy]

i think it's amazing that after all this pressure from politics and the media, obama is going to spend some time with his grandmother..that shows how compassionate,caring and loyal this man is,that he will stop whatever he's doing just to go see his ill grandmother... i'm sure that obama feels the same for this nation that's in ill times right now..

[Bruce]

You've got our votes for sure. Hold your Grandma's hand. She must be so proud....our prayers go out to her and you

[Ann]

I am praying for Barack's grandma that she will live long enough to see the wonderful grandson she raised, become President. It brought me to tears and I just hope she will get to experience that special joy.

[Stan2008]

Obama is an admirable man to leave his campaign to visit his sick Tutu. Many people made negative comments about his visit last summer.

I am praying that Tutu lives long enough to see Obama become President.

Tutu gave Obama down to earth common sense and good judgment. The results of her efforts is obvious. A man that loves his family and cares about the middle and lower class.

Obama is showing that family is more important than his campaign. A man of "real" values.

[Concerned Voter]

Wow, that's great! After he threw her under the bus with his Jeremiah Wright speech she seems to have recovered pretty well. Tough lady.

[Dude]

Someone needs to keep a camera on Obama in Hawaii.
His questionable "natural born" status, based on his inability to produce a genuine birth certificate (the one posted online was proven to be a fake), jeopardizes his whole $500 million candidacy. Is he going there, to cover up the truth, to keep his grandmother from speaking to investigators like Andy Martin, and to raid personal documents from her safe deposit box? Learn more at www.obamacrimes.com

[Dudette]

Ditto Dude! When John McCain left the campaign trail to go back to Washington when all of America was in trouble no one praised him. It shows how compassionate,caring and loyal this man is, that he will stop whatever he's doing just to go take care of the American people.

[chronoseternal]

Hey "Dude"
It is people like you that are making people like Colin Powell break from the Republican Party and endorse Barack Obama. His grandmother is on her deathbed and all you can think of is how to make political hay of it. Disgusting! You want to attack a candidate? Attack on the issues, not this trivial, trumped-up, deceitful, trash-talking jingoistic, vitriolic putrescence that you and your fellow zealots are spewing. If you want to trade hyper-links then how about you follow this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuhpO9xG2MY

I promise you that this link will lead you to a responsible evaluation of John McCain's approach to the economy, an actual RELEVANT ISSUE!

[Chrys]

Concerned Voter and Alessandro Machi: bring your politics to an article that addresses policies. This is about his grandmother. Show some respect.

[Agi Arnold]

Some of the comments being made regarding Barack's visiting his grandmother are full of hate and distrust. I bet these same folks consider themselves religious and patriotic. I use to think people, like the McCain supporters now making anti-Obama comments, even about his visiting his sick grandmother, were good people but they just had different views than liberals. Now I see that they are hypocritical, angry, unintelligent, miserable and heartless. I can see why they don't speak out when McCain and Palin or their supporters cross the line. These folks don't know what a line is so how can they possibly know when it has been crossed.

[Jesus Christ]

Please God. It's too soon. It's already now fair you took his mother away so soon. Please at least let her see her grandson become President. Please.

[Martha hugo]

I distinctincly heard Obama mentioning in a speech last week that he has not seen his granmother for 19 months and that she is ailing, suffering from osteopiritis. I remember it because I wondered if she still .lives in Hawaii why he did not visit her during his recent vacation there. .

[bacaangel]

McCain attacks Biden's remarks that if Barack is elected he will be tested militarily. Biden is wrong on this issue because we live in a different world today than the cold-war mentality Biden grew up in. Leaders around the World are waiting for Barack Obama to become President as they know him to be a fair and just man with an even Temperment, ready to talk through problems than to bomb, bomb Iran!

There will be crisises but they will be world crises such as the economic crisis we face today, and countries around the world will have to work together to address this most pressing issue. They will not be thinking about fighting but on how to turn their respective economies around and they know that it will take a combined commitment of countries to get this situation under control, along with other challenging problems like climate change and energy. World leaders realize that only by working together with unity and inclusiveness will the world problems be solved. It is no longer an individual problem or isolated. These are world problems met by countries united and not divided.
**************************************************
The Russian mission to the UN in New York says it has turned down a request from John McCain to help fund his presidential campaign.

Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin and others received standard mail-outs asking them to help "stop the Democrats from seizing control of Washington".

(More Republican Hypocrisy!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7681168.stm

[Ann]

I can't imagine being so filled with hate and bile that a man's visit to his sick grandmother would make you suspicious of motive. I feel really sorry for you - you obviously need therapy.