Obama Credits His 'Grit' to Grandma

Wants chance to speak to 'Toot,' who may not make it to Nov. 5
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

Barack Obama plans to give his ailing grandmother "a kiss and a hug" and do some chores today during his pause from the campaign trail in Hawaii, he told ABC’s Good Morning America. Madelyn Dunham, 85, is “gravely ill,” Obama said, and she may not live to see Election Day. He’s visiting to be sure of the chance to “sit down with her and talk to her.”

“Toot,” as Obama calls Dunham, took a key role in his upbringing. “She actually is where I think I get some of my strength and grit and determination,” he said. The candidate’s decision to leave the campaign alerted many to Dunham’s condition; now, she’s being “indundated” with good wishes from “total strangers.” “Maybe she is getting a sense of long-deserved recognition toward the end of her life,” Obama noted.

(More Barack Obama stories.)

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