Obama: "This is gonna be a big one

The Presidential candidate tells Ryan Seacrest he wouldn t be a nominee if not for ailing grandmother

Photo: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg News/Landov

Senator Barack Obama told Ryan Seacrest on Friday that he s enthusiastic about Tuesday s big election, but upset that the woman responsible for him seeking the presidency is gravely ill.

Traveling to Hawaii last week to visit the 85-year-old grandmother who helped raise him was tough, Obama told Seacrest on the American Idol host s KIIS-FM morning show. She s not doing great she s pretty sick. But I was glad I told her that the only reason I m doing what I m doing is because of her. It s a pretty big deal to her.

Obama said that on Tuesday, I ll vote first thing in the morning. Then I ll take the girls to school probably, then we will fly to a state fairly close to home that s a battleground state and do some campaigning and hand-shaking and all that good stuff, then I ll come back and have my traditional election day basketball game.

Seacrest asked Obama what he d say to undecided voters.

If you think that what we ve been doing is working, then John McCain is probably your choice, Obama said. If you think we can do a lot better, and young people can get a more affordable college education, or people without health care, can get health care then I think the plans I ve put forward are probably the ones that can bring about (those changes).

Obama lamented that this is the first Halloween he can t trick or treat with his daughters Malia, 10, and Natasha, 7. Even if I wear a rubber mask, if I ve got six Secret Service around me, it will probably attract (some attention).

In closing, Obama urged Americans to vote.

Whoever you re voting for, whether it s myself or John McCain, get out there and vote. This is one of those game changing elections… That s when democracy works best—when everyone is involved.