Barack's grandmother meets 'Obama Girl' and likes all she sees

Thanks to Todd Baer, Sen. Barack Obama's grandmama knows all about "Obama Girl."

The former KSTP-TV reporter, now a freelance foreign correspondent and media consultant, showed a copy of the video to Sarah Onyango Obama, Obama's grandmother, and Obama's Uncle Said, when Baer was doing an interview in Kenya with the presidential candidate's family. "A very good friend of mine in New York is the one who put that ['Obama Girl' video] together," Baer said from India.

His interview with Obama's relatives got bumped by CNN, but even so he doubts whether grandma's grooving to "I've Got a Crush on Obama" would have made the cut.

"I went to do a news story as a journalist trying to sell it to CNN," Baer said. "I didn't know how she'd feel about this ['Obama Girl' video]. I thought if she had a sense of humor, she'll love it. If not, she'll kick me out of the house. Luckily, Mama Sarah, I refer to her as Mama Sarah because that's what Senator Obama calls her, has a very good sense of humor and the uncle does as well. She was dancing to it. She was crying her eyes out, going nuts over 'Obama Girl.' She is an older lady, so that was a pretty funny moment."

Baer expressed amusement that, even though he'd spent five years at KSTP, the first time we spoke he was in India. That's because he didn't return the one phone call I made to him at KSTP, which he departed of his own accord. "My dream has always been to be a foreign correspondent," he said. "Previous to me leaving Channel 5, I took a six-week leave of absence to come to Karachi, Pakistan, to help start an English news network for Dawn Newspapers. I was just about ready to re-sign [a KSTP] contract and another network in Karachi called and said we'd like you to help us start up our English network for GEO-TV. They are widely regarded as the top Urdu language network in Pakistan."

His new career has resulted in Baer "making a lot more than I did at Channel 5. A lot more danger, but a lot more money."

Baer's wife, Marcia, who is from Rio de Janeiro, travels with him often. Hats off to her. My nerves were frayed last week when days went by and Baer had not responded to my e-mailed follow-up questions. After a few days he sent me an e-mail: "Yes, it is amazing that I'm alive. Survived 10 days in a Karachi hospital ... survived May 2007 riots in Karachi; street riots after the Bhutto assassination, and the bomb blast in Lahore, January 2007."

Special thanks Ben Relles, the barelypolitical.com creator of the "Obama Girl" video, for getting me a clip of some of Baer's time with Obama's grandma and to Adile Zaied Cook, a Cape Town, South Africa, photographer who started all this by sending an e-mail: "Thought you might be interested in this photo of Todd Baer and I with Barack Obama's grandmother and uncle in western Kenya." See my worldwide video exclusive at www.startribune.com/video.

After swapping e-mails with Cook, I learned he has inexplicably been a regular reader for a while. "I think your column is funny," wrote Cook, "even though I don't know most of the people you write about."

A really big star The anticipated star of the auction at Saturday night's PACER event won't be on stage with headliners Earth, Wind and Fire.

It may be too big, at 144 square feet. McGough Construction built a luxury handicap-accessible playhouse. It has insulated walls, running water, electricity -- and therefore, naturally, a chandelier -- loft, curtains and a deck, which will be added once it is delivered to the winning bidder. My video, which will be posted at www.startribune.com/video, features McGough's Paul Tragiai, who with Mike Kemp, construction guy and curtain hanger, and crew, oversaw the project along with Colleen McGough-Wood, and her grandson Jacob Wood, 6, whose wheelchair provided the technical assistance to make sure that the playhouse has the right turning radii.

McGough-Wood said there must be handicapped-accessible playhouses out there, but they just couldn't find one.

Douglas on KARE Tonight at 10, KARE11 should win the first night of the May sweeps with its "Extra" on Paul Douglas, the former KARE bear, who recently got cut by WCCO-TV.

Douglas, who is also Star Tribune's meteorologist, declined Wednesday to adumbrate: "I can't even predict the weather, much less ratings."

He said his interview with KARE meteorologist Belinda Jensen had been on his appointment book "for many, many weeks before 'Black Monday,'" as he calls the day he was fired by 'CCO. They were going to talk about the 25th anniversary of Douglas creating "The Backyard," an outdoor weather studio. They were scheduled to "mostly be reminiscing about why on Earth any sane person would stand out there; how did you get it kicked off, and what inspired you. All heck broke loose, and she slipped in some additional questions about my departure from 4. She apologized profusely; she said, I really don't want to ask this stuff, but Tom Lindner insisted that I get these questions in. I wasn't surprised."

Nobody who has studied Lindner, the unassuming yet shrewd news director, would be surprised.