Obama's grandma, RIP

It's incredibly sad that Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has not lived to see her grandson elected president of the United States. But given how much is at stake in this election, I might be forgiven for saying that she died when it would do the most good.

The McCain campaign has done its utmost to try to demonize Obama as some sort of alien "other," and some right-wing slimeballs even expressed the view that his trip to visit his grandmother in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago was a put up job designed to elicit sympathy. As outrageous and cruel as that suggestion was then, it would be well deserved revenge if it turned out that her death helped to "humanize" Obama just at the moment when millions of so-called "undecided" voters are about to go to the polls or are already voting.

In a similar vein, is it really a coincidence that Dick Cheney endorsed John McCain at the worst possible moment, right before the election? Would I be a conspiracy theorist if I suggested that Bush and Cheney, fed up with McCain's attempts to portray himself as the real anti-Bush candidate, decided to throw a banana peel onto his last curve on the road to the presidency?

I won't be blogging the election, by the way, but spending the evening with friends and colleagues instead. But I can assure you, no matter what happens tomorrow, I will be crying my eyes out.

Photo: Obama for America.