Why We Love Grandmas (SLIDESHOW)

It comes as no surprise that Barack Obama is taking precious time off from the crucial final days of his presidential campaign to visit the grandmother he calls "Toot" (from Tutu the Hawaiian word for grandparent). Wouldn't any of us do the same? Specially for a grandmother who had done as much for us as Madelyn Dunham did for her grandson.

She and her husband helped to raise Barack in Hawaii from his birth until he left for college. At the Democratic Convention he expressed his gratitude: "She poured everything she had into me." Obama's mother died in 1995, so for the past 13 years his grandmother has been the only maternal figure in his life. Now she is 85 and unwell. No wonder he is dropping everything to be with her.

Keep reading.

See this slideshow of his grandmother:

**Read more about and see a campaign ad featuring Madelyn Dunham.**