Obama Doesn't Shy From Hard Truths: Sister

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." (More Maya Soetoro-Ng stories.)