At Swampland, Joe Klein has a brief but moving piece on the passing of Obama's grandmother. The first of three paragraphs:

Word comes that Barack Obama's grandmother has died. The timing is ridiculous. But think, for a moment, if you will of Madelyn Dunham, a white woman from Kansas, strolling the aisle of a supermarket, or having lunch in a coffee shop, with her grandson--way back at the turn of the 1970s, when such sights were uncommon, even in Hawaii. Think about what her friends might have thought, or said, about her...situation. Think about what she poured into the child during the years when her daughter was in Indonesia and she was the closest thing to a mother that Obama had; think about the impact that she and her husband had on creating the man we've come to know, and the satisfaction she must have felt in her dying days.

Klein's title, "To the Mountaintop" seems fitting as it echoes MLK's last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop." To come so far...but to know that the dream continues...

Ben Smith notes that Madelyn Dunham voted early for her grandson via absentee ballot. Her vote will count tomorrow.