No surprise this came from the AP. Their reporting has been painfully biased this election. Why report this now? Their October Surprise - a November gift to McCain.

...has zero teeth (which is not to say that the Aunt herself has no teeth -- I have absolutely no information on her dental history).

I think a bigger October surprise could be when people jump on Palin's Khalidi fear-mongering and the money sent from the organization McDumb was on the board of, about a 5:1 ration ^ than what was given by the organization BO was on. People should be all over THAT one.

Is if Obama had tried to pull stings on her behalf.

You know that a candidate is clean when a mean-spirited, nasty, win-at-all-costs opposition that has been digging dirt on him for two years can only come up with the fact that he attended a dinner with someone who disagrees with him about Middle East policy, lives in a neighborhood with people who were anti-war protestors 40 years ago, served on boards with people with diverse backgrounds, and has a middle-aged aunt who managed to scrape together a $265 donation to his campaign who is living in this country without a proper visa.

How about that? What a miserable scumbag. At least he wasn't a total jerk-off at Annapolis, an arrogant Naval officer who crashed 7 planes before finding himself in a prison camp (what about all the other heroes who also were imprisoned and tortured?), left his ailing wife for a richer, prettier woman after she waited for him, prayed for him, and stood by him during his prison ordeal, played around after he was married, and turned into one of the dirtiest politicians we have seen in this horrible Rovian era.

This is pathetic. And thank goodness Obama is a decent enough man to leave McCain's personality, personal life, and past peccadillos out of his campaign and just campaign on the issues. He'll win on the issues and we may finally be rid of all this nastiness. Until Sarah Palin rears her snarky head over the edge of Alaska again.

McCain's creepy brother calls Virginian's 'Commies,' and calls 911 when he has a hangnail - and his wife pilfers from her charity for her drugs - no, Obama's barely-known aunt shouldn't have an impact, other than being used to disguise the 'impactor's' racism.

Obama will benefit directly from the hispanic voters as a result of this news.

Thank you. I had not read that his aunt had been stung. That makes her struggles all the more poignant. :)

William Bulger is the former Massachusetts Speaker of the House who later became head of UMass. His brother Whitey Bulger has been on the run since 1995. He was South Boston's biggest gangster, and is wanted for at least 19 murders.

For years, even when William Bulger refused to assist with the investigation (citing "family loyalty"), people insisted that he shouldn't be held responsible for his brother's misdeeds. He left UMass with $760,000 in severance pay and a $250,000 pension.

If Bulger shouldn't be punished for a brother who committed multiple murders, why should Obama be punished because a relative he met once in his life is an illegal immigrant?

I don't think Lou or his kind were voting for Obama anyway.

This may swing the whole election. Barack's aunt is a welfare cheat and an illegal alien. "Independent" and "Undecided" voters will pay attention if John and Sarah spend the next couple days hammering this story.

Barack should have known about this aunt, and he should have done something long ago. I will not vote for McCain because of this, but it proves Barack is not the Master of the Universe.

Seriously folks, this story is the "proof" of an American myth. If it had a connection with watermelon, it would be perfect in an evil way. Truth may be irrelevant sometimes, but it often is very powerful. This is a big deal.

My, how the Republicans know how to campaign on the issues... Pray tell, what do they stand for besides bigotry, hatred, division and greed?

Tempests. Teapots.

And if it was found that Obama had an aunt living in the US who went through the proper channels and was a legal resident the GOP-John McCain smear campaign would be saying she received preferential treatment. This is such a non- story.

...about Cindy McCain's handlers from Planet Vultron, her ties to Empress Xyprexa of the Northern Land Mass, and whether she truly has a fleet of Garlonian mercenaries with a fleet of Class-B WarMongers parked on the dark side of the moon.

To answer the question at the top of the article about "political impact" in a roundabout way...

John Cleese said, "If Rove was on the Democrat side, by now he would have run something about John McCain saying, ‘This man–this so-called hero–spent 5 ½ years, the most formative years of his life, in a Communist country, speaking only to Communists. He never had to pick up the tab. He got free accommodations, free food. Do we want someone as president who has been palling around with Communists?’”

Of course no one in the DNC is dumb enough to go with this kind of dirty politics, but dumb is as dumb does...witness what the RNC has been doing to Obama since the primaries.

So....no, I don't think Obama's barely-known half-aunt living in this country while unable to gain asylum will have a political impact. But it depends on whether or not this was the RNC's "October surprise", one more Rovian "dirty trick", and who makes a Really Big Deal about it.

Seriously... this is going to be what changes the election? I would love to hear your reasoning behind that. And please try to be convincing. Shoot... Rev. Wright has more of a chance of swinging the election than this does.

This is being dragged out now because the MSM wants this to be a close election. It's more of a story that way. If McCain was ahead of Obama right now we'd be hearing non-stories about McCain's second cousin's brother being accused of some petty crime or something like that. It's not that the press is pro-McCain or anti-Obama... they are pro-ratings and making money.