Obama In No Rush to Visit Grandma

It's been almost 72 hours since Barack Obama announced he was leaving the campaign trail to be with his ailing white grandmother and from all accounts he's yet to leave for Hawaii. Hate to be harsh here, but for a guy who's lamenting not being there with his mother when she was ill, he appears to be taking his time getting to Hawaii to visit grandma.

He discloses to CBS News he's wistful he wasn't able to get to Hawaii in time before his mother died.

So if that's the case, why isn't he already in Hawaii?

Sen. Barack Obama told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that he doesn’t want to make the same mistake with his grandmother that he made with his dying mother.

In an exclusive interview to be broadcast Thursday morning, the Democratic presidential candidate recalled how didn’t get to his mother before she died.

"Yeah, got there too late," the senator said in the interview, conducted Wednesday afternoon in Richmond, Va. "You know, I mean, it was sort of like this, in the sense that she had a terminal illness. We knew she wasn't doing well, but you know, the diagnosis was such that we thought we had a little more time and we didn't. And so I want to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice."

So, if according to reports your grandmother is gravely ill, why haven't you arrived yet to see her?

Smith apparently doesn't ask that question.

I can't be the only one suspicious about this whole thing. It just sets up too nicely that Obama gets a nice four-day weekend in Hawaii, sadly his grandma passes, then he gets a week of national mourning time and before you know it, poof, it's election day and wouldn't you know it, it just isn't fair to bash the guy while he's in mourning so why doesn't everyone lay off him for awhile?

So like I noted, it's 48 hours since the first notice of this yet we have no idea of his future itinerary. Hate to be the suspicious type, but this must be what I get for reading Andrew Sullivan too much.

From what I can gather Mrs. Dunham has been in poor health for at least the past 18 months. Just seems convenient to go visit now.

Obama's family is already insulating itself. "I am not giving any interviews," Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, curtly interjected when a reporter phoned. "I am in poor health."

Note this passage from the same story.

Obama's presidential prospects have been fueled in large part by an arresting life story: The son of a Kenyan goatherder, he wrestled with his dual identities to become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and a member of the U.S. Senate. So far, it has been a narrative spun almost entirely on Obama's terms and in his own words — most prominently in his bestselling memoir, "Dreams From My Father."

Now that life story is being edited by others. He is undergoing what some have called the "Profile Primary" — which is testing his ability to keep control of his public image, as journalists sketch portraits of the candidate as a young man and comb for contradictions and potential embarrassments in his past.

Doesn't seem like they've been combing much since March 2007.