I used to walk on the beach every Sunday, early, with my dog Blue. She and I would watch the sun come up, our paws and feet in the water, she tearing around, sniffing the wind, dancing in the surf.

Today was my first trip back to the beach since she died last November.

My dog Blue was one of those great furred personalities almost everyone loves. And she was totally  indiscriminate in her affections. Obama or Hillary would be just fine. I cannot remember a human being she avoided. Well, ok, if they had a stick to ward off the pesky creatures--and these often proved to be Republicans--  she would give them a wide go  around. But otherwise she adored humans and they adored her. In Manahttan where we lived for  several years  I can still hear the piping voice of the boy who lived on our block calling out to his Mom as we passed,

Look,  it's the singing wolf!

To his young mind the whoooowhoo whooo-oohthat all huskies do  sounded like singing, although the same happy sounds often sent older Manhattanites scooting to the edges of the sidewalk sometimes wide-eyed in terror as they asked,

Is that a wolf?

Blue never suspected the terror she aroused. She thought it was a game.  And for Blue life was a game. She especially loved:

I have it, now you try and get it back.

But if you did succeed in gaining the upper hand she just laughed and whoooowhoo whooo-ooed at you.    In Manhattan Sunday mornings were a special treat for both of us as we'd get up early and walk from the East river across 79th  Street  to Central Park where we would tramp  for more than an hour through the Ramble.  I always wondered if it reminded her  of being back in the woods in Montana.

In the beginning I had tried a polite turn around the great circle where all the fancy Manhattan dogs pranced and gamboled loose until 9 a.m., but Blue deemed most of these pampered pooches a little short on the rambunctious side of life. No, the Ramble was more her speed, and mine too with its trails cut through a profusion of trees and streams full of mossy boulders. The Ramble  even has a lake although a mean swan often partolled the shore and Blue instinctively knew to give that honker a wide go around. [ok. ok. Yes. It was a Republican swan.]

Thinking back on that time I still have no words to describe how fondly my heart would swell at the way she  would bound off into the brush only to  turn up somewhere down the trail, looking back, waiting patiently for me to catch up.

Blue loved everything to play at in life except swimming. I don't know why, now,  I thought she should swim? But when she was 2 years old I threw her of the dock in Montana's Whitefish Lake. Blue was born not far from Glacier Park, and that is where we first hooked up. But she hated water over her head, and she  never, ever forgot getting tossed in. She also never forgave me, so that whenever she and I were in close proximity to a large body of water  she'd lower her head, roll her  big blue eyes at me and then dash well out of reach.

But Blue loved the great southern California  beaches. Some mornings she would dash into the surf up to her chest and then raise her head and sniff the wind. Dolphins often come in close to shore and maybe she smelled them or maybe something else. I will always wonder because it is one of the secrets she took to her grave.

Beside curiosity about  her secrets Blue left behind a brown teddy bear with a red bowtie that  she adopted the second I walked in the door with it from a trip to Japan. It is sitting in a corner of the house alongside   a  grey and white rubber monster with spiky hair that squeaks  and a small, furry  Siberian husky with blue eyes mailed to us from some animal rights group in return for a contribution.

But to Blue, all stuffed animals were attractive, ownership being a slippery  issue because at street fairs she would lift them off counters and sometime even swipe one from an unwary child's hand. She also loved in no particular order trucks, cars, walks, rabbits, chickens  and my mother's wheaten terrier, Duffy. Unfortunately. Duffy went off Blue forevah after he tried to swipe a tidbit from the Big Girl's bowl. Blue was an alpha female and well, you do not mess with the food of the  Goddess. Although I was delighted when she stopped standing over the water spout in dog parks issuing commands   about  exactly  when her minions could have a swig--or not.

I never wrote about Blue's death. What do you say when your best friend dies after losing use of her back legs from liver cancer. After 13 yeears she lived inside my very cells. And I was not ready to say goodbye. I knew she died, of course But that question of saying goodbye in your heart is a whole other matter. I cried for a week and then sporadically after. I am crying now. Because I am saying goodbye. She is dead, and I am still here and wanting a pal to ramble with.

I read somewhere recently that if you have a good relationship, when it ends you are more likely to want another. Whereas if you had a bad experience, you will be less likely to want another. So I am seeing my desire for a new four-legged friend in this light. It is a tribute to Blue and all she gave  me of her great hearted self. Of course, she was my first  dog love. And you never get over the first one. I don't care how many come after.

MSNBC projects Obama to be the winner of Montana.

And no doubt why the story didn't try to claim Hillary Clinton said that, only the casual referenced "officials".  Like all the other claims others have made during this entire primary.

Super delegates should weigh in BEFORE Tuesday's primary in Montana and South Dakota.

The polls are showing Barack Obama currently leading in those two states; but even if he were to tie with Hillary, he would only get around 15 delegates total.  This means he needs at least 33 super delegates to put him over the top.

Hillary says help. Obama says help.

And the 69 dead in 61 days are calling your name.

The roll call of the dead began when  the Slaugher Boys known as Bush and Cheney delisted wolves from the Endangered Species Act and Limpy, a Wyoming wolf, was shot the first day.

Of course, we know why Camp Obama and the media keep trying to call an end for the campaign of the Democratic nomination.  Because as Hillary continues to campaign, she is winning the support of not just the Democrats, but more independents and Repbublicans, that shows her the best chance to win in the General Election.

May. 20, 2008 10:15 PM
COMMENTARY
Memo to Hillary Clinton: Please don't quit
By LEWIS W. DIUGUID
The Kansas City Star

Which also means, as long as she keeps receiving more support and more votes, Hillary can win the nomination.  And of course, that is possible, because the other candidate is not winning or securing the votes he needed to win.  That wasn't on Camp Obama's wishlist.  So, they have resorted to every other means possible to push for that outcome.  Forgetting apparently, Hillary is not a quitter.

On the heels of the mason dixon poll showing Obama up 17 points in Montana, one might not consider that she has any chance in the upcoming primaries. However, since the campaign of the ESTEEMED senator from Illinois is turing to GE mode a bit prematurely, Senator Clinton may have an opening in the next couple primaries. A few thoughts:
           Puerto Rico: On paper this is a Clinton rout but Obama's considerable cash advantage may allow him to somewhat negate a possible Clinton landslide in the delegate count but not enough to allay a victory in the popular vote, the metric which her campaign is now focused on.

            Montana: Obama will win this independent minded state fairly easily but not by a large enough margin to merit a significant delegate split. This is one state, though, where the Clinton name may still be strong enough (in certain areas) to swing a considerable number of votes, though not on the scale of Arkansas or West Virginia.

            South Dakota: This is the one state that Clinton could potentially pull a come from behind victory in. Though this is one of the few primaries that Bill Clinton lost in 92
(to Bob Kerrey no less), the large number of undecideds that has manifested itself in the few polls taken in this state suggests that Clinton has the potential to score a popular vote victory, albeit a narrow one in this state. If she could pull this off, it would need to be considered a remarkable feat, considering that Daschle, JOhnson, and Herseth-Sandlin are backing Obama.

that is just my two cents worth but please share your opinions and comments regarding this analysis below. BTW, if you feel that I am an idiot, f****r, retard, or troll, there is no need to post your sentiments in the comments section because that would violate the standards of this blog. Thanks.

Via Markos comes news of Mason-Dixon polling out of Montana:

Barack Obama has a big lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton in Montana's June 3 Democratic presidential primary, a Gazette State Poll shows.

Obama leads Clinton by 52 percent to 35 percent among likely Democratic voters, with 13 percent undecided in the poll, which was taken May 19-21. The Democratic primary portion of the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

As Markos notes, Montana is an overwhelmingly White state. Likewise, it's one of the poorer states in the nation. So Obama's 17-point lead in the state seems to undercut the notion that he performs particularly poorly among working class Whites outside of Appalachia (a fact underscored by Obama's similarly large victory in Oregon last week).

And just to crunch the numbers, if the primary results look something like this come the first Tuesday in June, Obama should net something like 9 of the 16 pledged delegates up for grab, though and 8-8 split of delegates is entirely possible, too. In order to get much higher than that, Obama would have to get closer to two-thirds of the vote (or about 65 percent), which doesn't appear terribly likely at this point.