The New Republic‘s Stump blog gives a backgrounder on Barack Obama‘s sick grandmother, who is in the news because he’s taking two days off the campaign to visit her in Hawaii. It quotes an interview Obama gave in which he said that not getting to his mother’s bedside before she died was the biggest mistake of his life.

“Obviously Obama would trade that coverage for her good health in a nanosecond. But the fact remains that this is a free-media blast about a side of Barack’s family that probably reassures white voters who may be skeptical of a black president, or outright misinformed about Obama’s background.”

Read more here.