By Mark Silva and Andrew Malcolm
Montana’s Big Sky is “a little bluer” today, NBC Nightly News reports tonight.
“This is some pretty country out here,” said Barack Obama, leading in the polls in Montana and campaigning there today.
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There are just 17 pledged delegates at stake there, in one of the last two states holding Democratic primaries, on June 3. And there are nine superdelegates.
“One thing I hope you know about me is that I don’t quit,” Hillary Clinton told a Montana audience. “I don’t quit on you, and I don’t quit on us.”
The stakes have turned out Democrats in droves. Montana’s annual Democratic Party dinner, normally a draw for about 600 people, is expecting 4,000 tonight.
“We may have to come back to Missoula,” Obama told a crowd, “No doubt about it.”
Obama will have a chance to set the record straight when he returns. According to wire reports from the state party dinner, Obama said: “Some people have been saying these caucus states out west don’t count that much. I don’t know about you, but I think they’re pretty important. And I’m tired of people saying that some states don’t count. I think every state counts.”
(Problem is, Montana had a caucus for the Republicans and Mitt Romney won with Ron Paul second. But for Obama’s party, it’s a primary election. On June 3. Hopefully, he’ll get some sleep before then.)