This may be a bit uncomfortable but it warrants pointing out. Obama made this brief video appearance today to talk about his Grandmother, spinning it somewhat into a character/judgment issue: "I didn't want to make the same mistake twice." That's because he said his Mother died before he was able to get back to see her.
Also keep in mind Obama used his Mother's illness for a commercial on health care:
My mother died of cancer at 53. In those last painful months, she was more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well.
- and has invoked her name repeatedly with regard to his book.
"I think sometimes that had I known she would not survive her illness, I might have written a different book - less a meditation on the absent parent, more a celebration of the one who was the single constant in my life," he wrote in the preface to his memoir, "Dreams From My Father."
Now Obama's Mother was diagnosed with both ovarian and uterine cancer in 1994.
In 1994, Ann Durham returned to Hawaii to be near her widowed mother after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and uterine cancer. A year later, while son Barack Obama was making his first run for political office, Ann Durham died.
She didn't pass until November of 1995.
Ann died on November 7, 1995 at age 52.
Obama wasn't running for anything the whole time she was dying. He wasn't elected until 1996 a full year after her death.
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996
Obama didn't "launch" anything until 1995 at the home of Bill Ayers.
The prognosis for ovarian cancer remains poor to this day.
Obama paints himself as this empathic figure. Yet, we know he has a step-brother living in a hut in Kenya, or wherever. And his Mother lay dying for almost if not a full year without a visit from her son - and now he trots her out in commercial because she was fighting with insurance companies?
Doesn't that bother anyone? It doesn't add up to someone who cares about anyone but himself if you ask me.
My mother died of cancer at 53. In those last painful months, she was more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well.
And this man is the guy who is supposed to care about health care issues for everyone else? You're kidding me right? A Harvard grad and a lawyer and he lets his Mother lay dying in pain and worry for a year without so much as a visit?
Frankly, that's repulsive as far as I'm concerned. He couldn't see his Mother because he was running the CAC and having lunch with Bill Ayers? Geesh!
"You're making my point Dan"
I don't believe so, Spart. I'd argue he should have visited even if estranged - but that's debateable. What isn't debateable is his using her in his campaign if that was the case. You see, your argument that they were estranged is fine - but read his quotes on her. He claims that wasn't the case. Now maybe he abandoned his white identity, I did read that. Again, fine, but you can't claim estrangement, then claim she was Mother of the year dependiong on which audience you want to please.
But then that is Barry's whole MO, really. He's full of crap.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 11:41 PM
Chris:
The great love of the Liberal for the common people on display.
Andrew Jackson would puke if he saw his party today, after caning you for being such an ass.
Posted by: Teleprompter Messiah | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 12:09 AM
Dan:
I believe the proper nomenclature is Captain Bullshit.
Posted by: Teleprompter Messiah | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 12:12 AM
Actually Dan my argument isn't that they were estranged but rather that you don't know whether they were or not. That point isn't even debatable...you don't know.
Oh, and sure you can claim different things about the same person at different times. Parent/child relationships are complex to say the least. My father was great at some things (accepting and supportive of choices, etc) and horrible at other things (birthdays, holidays, money issues in general). There I times I think of him as a great dad and times I think of him as horrible. It all depends on which memory I'm fixated on at a given moment.
Posted by: Spartan112 | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 06:37 AM
More proof that family relationships can be "difficult"
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1008/563913_video.html?ref=newsstory
Posted by: Spartan112 | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 06:56 AM
MJ:
November 4 is going to be a long day for "us people." It is going to be the day that the United States of America becomes completely and totally socialist, if Barak wins. A sad day for all of America.
Posted by: Tom | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 08:31 AM
Man, you really are the scum of the earth.
You extrapolate this: "And his Mother lay dying for almost if not a full year without a visit from her son" from the fact that she died before he could make it to Hawaii?
The fact is you have no idea how often he visited. Do you really, in your shriveled, sick little heart imagine for a minute he didn't visit her once during that entire year? Oh, wait a minute, I forgot who I was addressing.
Are you stupid or dishonest? Or merely a sleazebag?
Posted by: zuzu | Friday, October 24, 2008 at 09:29 PM