Talk About Bad Timing...

GOP files complaint over funding of Obama visit to grandmother— the day she died
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 4, 2008 10:11 AM CST
Talk About Bad Timing...
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, gets on his campaign charter at the airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, Friday, Oct. 24, 2008.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Just hours before Barack Obama announced that his grandmother had died, on the eve of the election, the California Republican Party filed a complaint against him for visiting her on his campaign’s dime, reports the Washington Post. The press release announcing the complaint may have been the worst-timed of any all year—but there was little time left in the campaign for it to backfire.

"Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use," the release stated. "Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do—at his own expense—but it was not travel that his campaign may fund." (More Election 2008 stories.)

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