By: DERRICK DePLEDGE and DAN NAKASO
Advertiser Staff Writers

   Obama arrives at Honolulu International Airport [Enlarge]
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Hawaii tonight for a brief, hastily arranged visit with his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, whose health is deteriorating.

The Hawaii-born U.S. senator touched down at Honolulu International Airport in his private campaign plane about 7:15 p.m. from the Mainland, where, earlier today, he appeared at a rally in downtown Indianapolis.

Obama departed the plane and entered his motorcade at a private hangar. The motorcade left the hangar at about 7:30 p.m. and proceeded directly to the Makiki-area apartment complex of his maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham.

The motorcade arrived at his grandmother’s apartment complex at about 7:45 p.m. Obama entered the complex for a private visit.

Obama met with his grandmother for about one hour. The Democratic presidential nominee did not make a statement to the news media about the visit or about his plans in Honolulu.

Obama’s motorcade left his grandmother’s apartment complex at about 8:50 p.m. for a short trip to the Hyatt Regency Waikiki, where the senator is staying. The motorcade arrived at the hotel just after 9 p.m.

Obama has no public events scheduled on Oçahu. He is expected to leave the island Friday about 5 p.m. and resume his campaign in the battleground state of Nevada.

The detour during the critical last two weeks of the campaign was so Obama could see his beloved grandmother ‘Toot,‘ who has been in poor health after she fell and broke her hip earlier this month.

Dunham, who turns 86 on Sunday, has suffered from osteoporosis that has limited her mobility and largely confined her to her 10th floor, two-bedroom Beretania Street apartment where she helped raise Obama.

In an interview this week with CBS News, Obama said he was intent on not making the same mistake he made before his mother died. Obama arrived back home in Hawaii too late to see her before Stanley Ann Dunham died of ovarian cancer in 1995 at age 53….. [MORE]

   Barack Obama & Grand Parents Stanley & Madelyn Dunham