Obama visits uncle's Indiana home
KEMPTON, Ind. -- White House hopeful Barack Obama reached out to his Midwestern farmland roots, visiting his great-uncle's home and giving a kiss and an autograph to his distant cousin Annette Noble, 67.
Obama's mother's family, the Dunhams, once lived here in Indiana, before moving to Kansas. The old Dunham farmhouse - amid wide-open cornfields - resembles Dorothy's house in The Wizard of Oz. Unnseasonably strong wind gusts also evoked Wizard-of-Oz images as they lifted loose shingles partially off the roof of the 120-year-old home.
(AP)
Obama and 30 local residents who came out to meet him hunkered down behind the house to get away from the relentless winds that forced members of the national and international press to huddle together for warmth.
"It will be interesting to see if we can develop some kind of a friendship, because he doesn't have much family," said Noble, a retired school-teacher who found out only two months ago she was a distant relative of Obama's. "He gave me a kiss. He autographed my book," she said, holding up a copy of Obama's book which she started reading two months ago.
"The Dunham," Obama said as he walked off the bus into the winds, words failing him for a change. ". . .homestead," he finally said.
Obama made a series of stops around Indiana Saturday, giving a new speech on the economy at an Indianapolis high school, and dropping in at a family picnic in Noblesville, where his daughters played in the playground while he and his wife spoke.
He wound up the day at a roller rink in LaFayette, shaking hands as "YMCA"
blared from the speakers.
"I spared you the sight of me trying to roller skate," he said.
Many of his supporters who turned out at the events promised to get their friends and neighbors out to vote Tuesday, but they acknowledged the vote would likely be very close against rival Hillary Clinton, who returned to Indiana late Saturday from North Carolina to campaign here.
"I think it's going to be very close," said Keith Cheney, 38, who said that like Obama, he is a very distant relative and non-fan of Vice President Dick Cheney. "I think those comments from his pastor are going to make the margin smaller than it would otherwise have been. But I think he'll win."
Obama's retooled speech Saturday focused on his plans to revive the economy, and his criticism of Clinton's approach to the economy.
"Some of you might have seen that Sen. Clinton's spending a lot of money on a television ad that attacks me for not supporting her and John McCain's idea of a gas tax holiday for the summer," Obama told the crowd at Lawrence North High School. "Now, this is an idea that will save you - altogether - half a tank of gas. That's thirty cents a day. For three months. That's if the oil companies don't simply jack up their price to fill the gap, as they've done when this was tried before. Does anyone here really trust the oil companies to give you the savings when they could just pocket the money themselves?"
History teacher John Diercks, 59, said he agreed with Obama that Clinton's gas tax was "pandering," and that's the main issue that helped him make up his mind to support Obama over Clinton. But he and other Obama fans said Obama should stick to talking himself up instead of talking Clinton down.
"They're doing all McCain's dirty work for him, which is why I'm sorry he mentioned Hillary," Diercks said. "Most of the people here are his supporters, so he didn't need to attack her."
"I was surprised how much he talked about Clinton," Joey Fox, 19, agreed. "I really think he should stick to talking about himself. He doesn't need to talk about anybody else. As a Republican, my attraction to him is he's not a typical liberal Democrat. I wish the Republicans had a Barack Obama."