Hey, I said to my 80-something old mother, did you hear Barack Obama dropped in on Sombrero Festival, unannounced and mingled with the locals for half an hour?

“Pues si,” my mother said rather cooly, “Obama no conoce la gente Mexicana muy bien.”

But he sure has been trying, hasn’t he? The unsaid assumption in my mother’s simple statement is that Obama’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, knows South Texas and Latinos as well as her Senate constituents in upstate New York. I’m not buying that one, or the notion that because Clinton has come here plenty for lucrative fundraisers in ritzy north McAllen means she has a great personal connection with Rio Grande Valley locals.

Both candidates, of course, have self-serving reasons for their newfound interest in South Texas. The state’s primary is on tap for tomorrow, March 4, and Obama can either close out the Dem nomination by winning here and/or in Ohio, or Clinton can save her struggling presidential bid by doing the same.

In addition to each candidate visiting the Valley twice in recent weeks, and sending high-profile surrogates ranging from Hill’s hub, Bill, to JFK’s daughter, Carolina, (for Obama), we’ve witnessed the media blitz of each campaign. Both campaigns are flushed with cash, so we’ve seen more Obama and Clinton TV ads than those from local candidates. And it’s just not the generic national ads running everywhere. One Obama radio ad aired locally talks about the need for a veterans’ hospital in the Valley, the decades-long wish of many in our area.

If nothing else, all of the attention has been nice. Just from an entertainment standpoint, Obama’s impromptu drop-in at Sombrero Festival was quite remarkable. After speaking at a private gathering of religious leaders at UT-Brownsville, Obama was apparently driven around town some before coming to Washington Park in the heart of Brownsville, where the festival was being held.

Out pops the Dem presidential frontrunner for a 30-minute visit with the locals, munching on a torta and signing autographs and taking photos with young and old. It wasn’t a planned event. The only local media there was a contigent from The Brownsville Herald, which happened to be tailing Obama’s mini-caravan. So, given the scant media there, Obama wasn’t trying to milk media coverage by dropping in on the festival. Maybe he just felt like taking a brief break from the rigors of an intense campaign.

And so, a prez candidate who just a few days before was fending off Hillary barbs at a high-stakes debate in Cleveland, was now munching on a torta and shaking hands with pretty little Brownsville girls at Somberero Festival. What made the festival visit even more remarkable was that just days earlier the New York Times  had published a page 1 story which detailed concerns about Obama’s personal safety. The story reported that Obama is already getting presidential-level Secret Service protection because of safety concerns, and now here he was with nothing between him and a Sombrero Festival torta.

A half-hour visit may not do much to dent the Clinton name brand in South Texas, but still, it was a nice gesture on Obama’s part. Maybe my dear Mom is right in saying Obama doesn’t know Hispanics in Texas very well, but one poll out over the weekend, (Survey USA), shows Clinton’s lead among Texas Hispanics has shrunk from a 33 percent edge a week ago to a current 13 percent gap.

The Chisme guess is that Obama wins Texas, where his numbers have been climbing, but Clinton holds on to prevail in Ohio. A split decision means the race will go on, getting grubbier by the day and week because the Clintons won’t give up, no matter what.

But, alas, for at least half an hour Obama got a taste of Brownsville and a torta stuffed with cabbage and roast beef, with a sprinkling of salsa.

“It’s good,” Obama said taking a bite out of a sandwich prepared by a 17-year-old Pace High School student, who said he was shaking while preparing a torta for the palate of a man who might be this country’s next president.

Yes, senator, it’s good, it’s all good.