Obama takes campaign leave to visit ailing grandmother

Barack Obama is leaving the presidential campaign trail for two days to be with his 85-year-old grandmother who has suddenly become seriously ill, his campaign said today.

Mr Obama’s communications director Robert Gibbs said the health of the Illinois senator’s grandmother Madelyn Payne Dunham, who raised him, had deteriorated “to the point where her situation is very serious”.

The 47-year-old Democrat will travel to Hawaii to be with her and events planned for Wisconsin and Iowa later today have been cancelled as he leaves the campaign trail at a critical moment, just two weeks before next month’s election.

Mr Obama will attend an event in Indianapolis, Indiana, before making the long flight to Hawaii later today.

His wife, Michelle, will replace him at two rallies in the battleground state of Ohio on Friday.

“Senator Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life, along with his mother and his grandfather,” Mr Gibbs said.

“Recently his grandmother has become ill and in the last few weeks her health has deteriorated to the point where her situation is very serious.

“It is for that reason that Senator Obama has decided to change his schedule on Thursday and Friday so that he can see her and spend some time with her.”

Mr Gibbs cited Mr Obama’s family’s desire for privacy and said he would not discuss the nature of Mrs Dunham’s illness.

He added said that “everyone understands the decision that Senator Obama is making”.

It could be a momentous decision in his bid to become the first African-American president of the United States.

He currently leads his Republican rival John McCain in national polls and has been building on his momentum with just 14 days of the almost-two year campaign left to go.

In a campaign advert earlier this year, Mr Obama described his grandmother as the daughter of a Midwest oil company clerk who “taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland”.

He said this included things like “accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbour as you’d like to be treated”.

Mrs Dunham is also the “white grandmother” he referred to in a high-profile speech on race as he called for a “more perfect union” in the US.

Mr Obama last visited Hawaii in August, when he spent a week on holiday after he had clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.