Obama set to dash to sick grandmother

WASHINGTON: Front-runner Barack Obama was Thursday set to quit the White House trail for Hawaii and an emotional reunion with his gravely ill 85-year-old grandmother, just 12 days before the election.

Ailing Madelyn Dunham raised the 47-year-old Obama for much of his childhood, and is his sole remaining link with his tight-knit family after his mother died of cancer more than a decade ago.

The Democratic nominee's compassionate leave comes with Republican John McCain searching for a sudden lurch in momentum and new polls showing Obama well positioned in the vital battleground states set to decide the election.

Obama told CBS that he decided to make the exhausting journey across the Pacific to see Dunham -- nicknamed "Toot" -- despite the crush of campaign events as he "got there too late" when his mother, Ann Dunham died.

"We knew that she wasn't doing well but, you know, the diagnosis was such where we thought we had a little more time and we didn't. And so I want to make sure that I don't -- I don't make the same mistake twice," Obama said.

"My grandmother's the last one left. She has really been the rock of the family, the foundation of the family. Whatever strength, discipline that I have, it comes from her," Obama said.

Dunham is reportedly suffering from a broken hip and generally failing health, though the campaign has not given details of her condition.

The Democratic nominee held a morning rally in midwestern Indiana, a key swing state before flying 11 hours through the night to his native state. He was due to return to the trail in Nevada on Saturday.

Obama's mercy mission comes as he leads his rival McCain in the latest surveys of the key battlegrounds.

The Democrat's absence, unprecedented this close to election day, may give McCain the chance to grab the limelight as he searches for a way to suddenly shift the momentum of a race that seems to be slipping away.

But Obama's place will be filled by wife Michelle and the campaign will use some of its mammoth multi-million dollar financial advantage over McCain to saturate the airwaves with Obama ads.

A new sheaf of polls in battleground states by Quinnipiac University cast sharp doubt on McCain's prospects.

Obama led the Republican in Florida by 49 to 44 percent, compared to a 51-43 percent lead in the last survey October 1, and in another key state Pennsylvania by 53-40 percent, compared to 54-39 percent last time.

McCain lost ground in Ohio, often the decisive state in presidential elections, where Obama leads 52-38 percent, expanding his lead of 50-42 percent at the beginning of this month.

No candidate has been elected president since 1960 without taking two of these three largest swing states in the US electoral college.

"To overcome Senator Obama's lead in Ohio, Senator McCain would have to get virtually every voter who remains undecided plus almost all of the Obama supporters who said they still might change their minds," said Quinnipiac assistant director of polling Peter Brown.

McCain set off on a bus tour through key parts of Florida Thursday dedicated to "Joe the Plumber," the Ohio tradesman who has become an emblem for his claims that Obama wants to hike taxes.

"Senator Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is in growing the pie," McCain told supporters at a rally in Ormond.

"In this country we believe in spreading opportunity for those whose create jobs and those who need them."

But Obama charged here that McCain wanted to offer tax breaks to huge US corporations he blamed for shipping jobs overseas.

"My opponent may call that "fundamental economics" but we know that's just another name for the Wall Street first, Main Street last economic philosophy we've had for the past eight years -- and that's fundamentally wrong."

Some recent polls have suggested the race in Florida, ground zero for the 2000 election debacle, is very close, and could be narrowing in the Republican's favor.