that he took the campaign 767 to Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother? This would be at contributor expense, right? Those that donated to the campaign.

This is NOT a campaign expense exactly, so how does he justify this?

Now, mind you, I am just now reading about this "deed" so I haven't checked all the facts,but, wanted to throw it out there to give us yet more fodder to munch on during these 9 days before election day

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

No, Obama's trip to visit his dying grandmother didn't bother me one bit. And I've donated to his campaign -- three times, I believe.

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Reading is Fundamental.

I've donated twice and I am not bothered. This was not something extravagant. Because of security reasons he couldn't take a commercial flight.

But, would it have bothered you had McCain done the same? Personal trip on company time and money (so to speak)....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I don't look at it any different than either candidate using their planes to go home for a day off. They both have done this.

And it is important that Obama see for himself that his family is ok so he can concentrate on his campaign.

Nothing wrong with it.

I don't think of it as a personal trip on company time and money, though your opinion may vary.

He needed to be someone in the midst of a campaign and there was no other practical way to get there. If McCain's mother was suddenly dying, I certainly would not object to him using all tools at his disposal to get there quickly. Of course, I don't donate to McCain.

Of course, I also expect certain members of this board to call me a liar for voicing my opinion about McCain. That's par for the course -- any opinion I have that doesn't suit those people is immediately dismissed as a lie.

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Reading is Fundamental.

How would you suggest he travel to Hawaii? Perhaps, if McCain/Palin hadn't invoked their own pitchfork carriers, flying commercial might be a possiblity. I want him to see the woman who helpled raise him fast and safe. Hopefully, his next visit will be on AF1

Obama didn't have an affair with a millionaire, so he doesn't have a wife with a jet http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us...=1&oref=slogin

Your AF1 reference made me think -- how is this trip to Hawaii any different than Bush taking AF1 to Crawford every few weeks? At least with Obama, I have the option to stop sending money. I don't get that choice about Bush's use of AF1.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Of course it wouldn't bother the libs that Obama used their money to visit his grandmother. Don't ya know the 'great and mighty Obama' does no wrong? However, when republican funds are used to purchase clothes for Gov. Palin, the libs come out crying and hollering foul when, in fact, it's none of their business!

You know by now there are two standards!

And there it is, frothing at the mouth and all.

Has there ever been a more ironic sig line??

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Reading is Fundamental.

No, for me I wouldn't have cared how much the Republicans spent on her clothes if she would not have come across like she was just jane six pack and ordinary. It was hypocritical. The entire facade of who she is and was trying to portray to the base....this folksy, down to earth, Target shopping, aw shucks character when in reality the outfit she has on cost more than most people in that base make in a week.

Her coming on TV saying she shops at consignment clothes AFTER the fact and that the clothes were going to be taken to Goodwill or returned to the store came AFTER it was published.

And the fact that they are going to return these expensive clothes (already worn) to Saks or Neimans is nasty and if they are going to give them to Goodwill is wasteful. No good answer. Will they buy her newer clothes if per chance she is "so blessed" to become VP? It would seem so as her own wardrobe nowseems like it is not befitting of her new station.

150000 is a lot of money even for six people even at NM or S5th ave.

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GO NAVY WRESTLING!!BEAT ARMY!!!
RJB 3/18/60 - 5/22/04
We miss you, sweet brother
God Bless the USA!!!!! Praying for my Youngster son at United States Naval Academy, class of 2014!!

Hmmm... this is the same grandmother that Obama threw under the bus back a few months ago in a political speech, comparing her to Rev. Wright and saying that she was scared of black people????

YouTube - Barack Obama kicks white grandmother to the curb.

Are you actually trying to compare visiting an ill grandparent to buying designer clothing?

Perhaps you're just not recognizing the 2008 version of compassionate conservatism.

As you correctly point out, the issue is not the money (as outrageous as that sum is). The issue is the rank hypocrisy of claiming to be Jane Sixpack while she's wearing 2,500 designer jackets from Nieman Marcus.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Funny how you libs are ignoring the link to Obama dissing his white grandmother at a political speech.
Sad, very sad.

He didm't diss his grandmother. She said what she said, and, she said it to Obama. Relating a fact is not dissing.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO !!!!

Feeling a little desperate at this point of the election. Is nothing sacred. What happened to leaving family out of the mix.

Oh, that's right, Republicans didn't get that memo. Nothing is off limits - doesn't matter if it is the truth or not - anything to get the public stirred up over nothing.

Videos don't lie. Obama threw his dear white grandmother who helped raise him under the bus by using her as an example. He should be ashamed of himself. I hope he went to visit her to apologize to her.

I just bet that's exactly what you hope.

While we're making wishes, I hope McCain apologized to Carol McCain for dumping her for Arizona Barbie.

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Reading is Fundamental.

Explain to me why you think that relating what his grandmother said is throwing her under the bus. Are you saying that he should be ashamed of himself for being black? I don't get it.

His grandmother is white, in case you didn't know.

He used his aging and sick grandmother as an example of what some white people think of black people. He used his own grandmother to further his political ambition. What type of person would stand up in front of an entire nation and talk about his grandmother and her adversion to blacks?? Some people will stoop really low to get what they want, I guess. Sad....

Also, since his grandmother is dying, wonder why Michelle and the girls didn't go with Obama to Hawaii? You'd think he'd want his children to see their great-grandmother before she passed on......

You really do have some race hate issues, don't you? Honestly, I feel really sorry for you right now.

What ARE you talking about????

Your anger. It is sad.

You're very kind. Deranged is the word that springs to my mind.

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Reading is Fundamental.

It is called 'telling the truth'. I know this is a new concept to the Republican party but Obama was telling it like it was with a true story about his grandmotehr. Would you rather he picked a Joe the plumber or Joe the truck driver to make his point. How ridiculous.

As to the fact that the rest of the family did not partake in the trip to see their great grandmother maybe they wanted to remember her as a healthy vibrant strong person that she was and not remember her on her death bed. This is a personal matter and should not be disected.

Obama is the one with race issues. Why did he bring up the fact in first place? What did it accomplish?

As long the same rules apply to both sides, I don't care. I just don't like double standards.

This is one of those situations that because of security concerns I don't have an issue w/ the candidate(s) using whatever they have at their disposal.
This is the woman who raised Obama. He should make sure he pays his respect WHILE she's a live. Paying your respects after they die is kind of a moot point.

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

Then why bring her up at all? I'm sure he could have made his point without making his grandmother, who apparently made many sacrifices for him, look bad.

Others who know Dunham were caught off guard by that mention in Obama's speech.

"I was real surprised that he indicated that," said Dennis Ching, who was a 23-year-old management trainee under Dunham beginning in 1966. "I never heard her say anything like that. I never heard her say anything negative about anything. And she never swore."

" I never heard Madelyn say anything disparaging about people of African ancestry or Asian ancestry or anybody's ancestry," Slom said.

Family precedent: Obama's grandmother blazed trails - USATODAY.com

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

Why is it that you only have nasty personal attacks to add?

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

I agree. I don't really care that he took the plane. I'm not sure what the rules are regarding it. . .but I don't have a problem with it.

ETA: Does anybody know what's wrong with her? How sick is she? I really haven't seen or heard much about it.


Ahhh. .. I found this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27287222/

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

She fell and broke a hip, but has been declining for awhile.

Obama has some race issues himself.

"... .. The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it..." - Senator Barack Obama


Is he saying that the "typical white person" is afraid of minorities? If that's not a race based stereotype, I don't know what is?

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

You know this is crazy talk, right? He was making a point about some white people. He was saying this and also says that his grandmother raised him and yet she didn't see him as a black person.

You need to watch the video with your McCain glasses off.

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GO NAVY WRESTLING!!BEAT ARMY!!!
RJB 3/18/60 - 5/22/04
We miss you, sweet brother
God Bless the USA!!!!! Praying for my Youngster son at United States Naval Academy, class of 2014!!

Go ahead. Keep trying to convince yourself.

I think it is you who keep trying to convince yourself by grabbing anything you can to further your Conservative, narrow minded view of this man.

He doesn't have race issues like you would like to believe, he answered the question on how he knew Ayers, he also answered the question about the involvement with ACORN. Because he didn't say what you want him to say, you continue to bring these issues up and tell everyone he is lying. You don't know what the truth is.....Only Obama does.

I won't say this is because you are a conservative voter as I see you do all the time. I am saying this is what YOU believe from your postings. I won't say you are hung up on his race but it certainly seems so.

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GO NAVY WRESTLING!!BEAT ARMY!!!
RJB 3/18/60 - 5/22/04
We miss you, sweet brother
God Bless the USA!!!!! Praying for my Youngster son at United States Naval Academy, class of 2014!!

Obama's grandmother loves him. The fact that she related her honest reaction to Obama doesn't surprise me at all nor does it make her a bigot. It also doesn't make her look bad. It does make her look human.

I am not at all surprised that you could dig up quotes from people who knew his grandmother and never heard her make a bigoted comment.

Keep talking. You'll convince yourself eventually.....

Wow, you must think you're smart since you now 'know' what I believe and what I think about something. You libs really think high of yourselves, don't ya?

Of course she loves him. But I think he did make her look like a bigot. . .

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

No, it is pretty low of somebody to even say something about that.....The woman who raised him, loved him, and made him who he is today is about to die. Do you have any compasion at all????It amazing how low Mccain supporters will go.
It is so funny on this board the people who have problems with Obama are the same ones that have no problems with paying 150.000 thousand dollars for clothes. 21 thousand to ship kids around-(why are her kids never in school).

Well....I would think that the fact that history has shown we were 100% correct about Bush and the Cons were 100% wrong gives us reason to think far more highly of our instincts and discernment than of yours.

Unfortunately, it took Bush royally screwing over the entire country for us to be proven right.

Maureen

Nope not at all.

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Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

Doesn't bother me one bit. I'm glad he went to see her.

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Mom to Jake, Zach & Meghan
SJCC STREAKS FOOTBALL!!
CLEVELAND BROWNS FOOTBALL!

I've donated twice to Obama's campaign. It doesn't bother me at all. I'm glad he went.

That's exactly what he made her look like. And rightly so. It wasn't that long ago that we were a divided country, where black and white couldn't sit, stand, or eat in the same places. There is still a big chunk of this country that lived through those times, and some of those people handed down their beliefs to their children, and so on. It is easy to fear what is different -- what doesn't look or act like us.

I don't think that he is that far off in describing her as a "typical white person." I would say that it is a true assessment of a good chunk of the population - white, black, brown, whatever - that's just the nature of race in our society. It's why the women at the McCain rally stood up and said she didn't trust Obama because he was an Arab - I don't think it had anything to do with her age, as much as it did with fear and what society has allowed being "Arab" to mean in this country. We are all bigots from time to time - bigotry is not just racially motivated.

My grandmother was a racist, not just a bigot - and I was very lucky to have parents that didn't have the same world view, so Igrew up with a much lager view of the world. I'm happy for that. That's not to say that my Irish, Catholic father didn't show some signs of bigotry from time to time and that my near 70 year old mother doesn't still get worried when she walks alone down the street. I'm sure Obama's grandmother's world vision changed a little the day he was brought into this world, and maybe she's a little less fear driven than some others, but she serves as a good example of learned behavoirs and beliefs are not always right. And just because she never said it to her friends, doesn't mean it isn't something she shared with him.

I think you highlighted the wrong part of the quote....I think he was trying to make this point....

"... .. The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white person who, uh, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know there's a reaction that's been been bred into our experiences that don't go away and that sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it..." - Senator Barack Obama

This doesn't read to me like a man who was trying to throw his grandma under the bus or someone that was using her. But, everyone has their own opinion....

As far as going to visit her on the jet, I will say the same thing I did about Palin's clothes. If you gave money to the Obama camp, then you should have something to say about it. If it breaks FEC rules, then I'm sure they will have something to say about it.

Both camps have made it a point to make their "families first" in this election (kids are off limits, spouses being treated with respect) so I would expect nothing less from either side and I would have done the same thing.

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I'm the kind of woman when my feet hit the floor in each morning, the devil says "Oh crap, she's up."

Nope. It's a non issue to me. Like jazame, I am glad he went to see her.

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@@@
l/ l/ l/
Dont go through life,
GROW through life

Real eyes...realize...real lies.

Just wondering. Did anyone who's soooo upset over this contribute to Obama? Or are you just pretending to be mad? Do you have some sort of stake in this that I don't know about? Or are you only "mad" about this b/c it's some kind of supposed counterpoint to Palin's $150k clothes? I don't get it.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

You know, being in the public eye like these candidates presents a lot of damned if you do, damned if you don't situations. Had he not gone and seen her, it would have reflected badly on him. He took a private jet, and it reflects badly on him. Personally, if the woman who raised me was dying, I would move Heaven and Earth to get to her side. To Hell with the critics.

Same w/ Palin's clothes. If she showed up looking less than perfectly coiffed and primped she'd get dinged by the critics (what? She wore the same dress 3 times??? ) But, she spends $150K on clothes and the critics are all over it.

Sometimes there really isn't a winning situation sometimes....

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Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

I don't see any problem with it - He received over 160 million in campaign contributions, I doubt any of his contributors is going to care one way or the other. I'm sure while he was there he did a little "politic-ing".

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Mary

I don't think any compassionate, caring person who donated to his campaign gives a hoot about him spending the time and money to go see his grandmother. I certainly do not...I could care less if he spent every single penny I sent on this trip. Just as it is not my money that the RNC spent on Palin's wardrobe/make-over. However, to somehow try to equate spending money and time to go see a dying relative who helped raise that person, to spending money on clothes seems quite a reach and not even comparative. They do not even begin to reside in the same category

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I just wanted to add that were I a McCain/Palin supporter, and one of their family members was sick and they chose NOT to go see them (regardless of method used), I would lose any and all respect for them. ANY. The same for Obama. Had he chosen to NOT go to his grandmom, regardless of method used, he would have lost my respect.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

I am very happy to went to go see his grandmother and any candidate should be expected to do the same thing, we are talking about family her now matter what... Catherine