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ELECTION IN BRIEF.(Main)

Article from: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM) Article date: November 04, 2008

Byline: NEW MEXICAN WIRE SERVICES

Obama's grandmother dies

HONOLULU -- Barack Obama's grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86.

Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. The joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said Dunham died late Sunday at her Honolulu apartment after a battle with cancer.

"She's gone home," Obama said as tens of thousands of rowdy supporters at the ...

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Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister

Posted Apr 7, 08 9:58 AM CDT in Politics 

Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister
Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

(Newser) – Barack Obama's diverse family has remained silent since the flare-up over his former pastor's sermons. But in her first public comments since Obama's speech on race in America, half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng told the Telegraph their "typical white" grandmother, whose opinions on blacks sometimes made the candidate "cringe," was "entirely supportive" of Obama and his descriptions.

Obama faced criticism in the conservative press for his depiction of Madelyne Dunham in the Philadelphia speech, but Soetoro-Ng dismissed such comments. "I know that I have only ever known him to tell the truth," she said, "even when it wasn't convenient or when it would generate discomfort with family, friends, or co-workers."

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UPDATED

Obama's Grandmother Loses Battle With Cancer

Madelyn Dunham passes away at 86 on eve of historic election

(Newser) - On the eve of Election Day, Barack Obama's maternal grandmother died today in Honolulu after a long struggle with cancer. Madelyn Dunham, who helped raise Obama, had been in hospice care, the Chicago Tribune reports. The senator and his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng released a statement calling their 86-year-old grandmother "the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility." More »

OPINION
(Newser) - Barack Obama may be on the brink of the presidency, but many still wonder whether he’s a closet radical, Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post . He carries a liberal Illinois legislature record, associations with Ayers, Alinsky, Wright, and ACORN, and an “elitist disdain for bitter, God-clinging conservatives,” Gerson notes. But in reality, Obama seems to see himself as “a reconciler of opposites,” and “transcender of stale debates.” More »


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