Among the nasty and patently ridiculous smears against Barack Obama circulating on far-right websites is the idea that he is somehow "hiding" his maternal grandmother from the public in an attempt to deny his white heritage. Anyone who thinks that is true obviously does not read the news; stories of Obama's grandmother's upbringing in Kansas and fortitude in raising him have been front and center in the campaign. Madelyn Dunham is now 86-years old, and I always assumed her absence from the spotlight was due to declining health.
Now that has been confirmed. Obama is canceling his events Thursday and Friday to travel to Hawaii to visit his grandmother, who has been released from the hospital and is ailing. Her death would mean the loss for Obama of all three of the folks who raised him; his mother and grandfather are already deceased.
--Dana Goldstein
