How Cute is Obama's Dog? Is Bo "the Cutest Dog Ever?"

In a recent survey, respondents rated Obama's new dog, Bo, cuter than 95% of all dogs -- with most respondents considering Bo "extra cute."

America recently watched Bo's arrival at the White House closer than it has that of any world leader, men and women of all ages fawning over this Portuguese water dog's every move.

Upon hearing my colleague Deven proclaim "OMG I think I am going to faint...that is the cutest dog ever!" I took it upon myself to figure out how cute Obama's dog really is. Is Bo really "the cutest dog ever?"

As many of you know, here at Experience Project we have a large and vibrant community of pet lovers among the tens of thousands of passionate life experience groups members have formed. One of the things that pet lovers enjoy on the site is the EP Pet Project which, among other things, allows them to share pictures of their pets, adopt virtual pets, and play "Cute or Not" -- a fun game where they can rate how cute they think a pet is.

To help me answer whether Bo is "the cutest dog ever," I asked a friend to submit a photo of Bo as a "contestant" in EP's Cute or Not game.

Within a day, Bo's cuteness had been voted on by nearly 600 people, and we had come to an average cuteness rating of 4.4 out of 5. So, how does that stack up against all dogs in America?

Since the EP Pet Project has had over 2,000 different pets submitted, I was able to look up my answer. Based on his cuteness score, Bo was rated as being cuter than 95% of all dogs! That's pretty remarkable and certainly places Bo as one of the cutest dogs in America -- quite an honor, if being America's First Dog wasn't enough!

UPDATE: the "Cute Puppies" Page on Facebook and @PuppyOfTheDay on Twitter also ran an informal poll on how cute fans thought Bo was as part of their Puppy of the Day game. According to them, Bo is cuter than 85% of all puppies. Nevertheless, Bo is still being considered cuter than most!

Play Trivia for your Favorite Candidate

Following the success of our efforts to help save shelter pets and baby seals, we proudly announce the release of our US Presidential Election Candidate Game... play for your favorite candidate, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or John McCain, and we'll donate proceeds to the respective campaign. It's an easy way to help your favorite candidate, pass some time, and increase your knowledge of trivia.

Have fun :)

Barack Obama won the Texas Primary, Right?

Like many of you, we've been closely following the trials and tribulations of the US Presidential Election, namely the Democratic contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Barack was on the verge of a knockout last week after 13 straight victories, but Hillary stayed in it by winning Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island. But the conclusions were based without having the final Texas Democratic Primary results, including caucuses. Let us explain...

Ohio and Rhode Island were impressive victories, no doubt, both by healthy margins. But it is Texas that provides the most curious results, and by any reasonable math, Obama actually WON Texas yet received no popular credit for it. Here's how it looks:

From the Texas Secretary of State, and with 100% of ballots counted, here are the results:

Hillary Clinton 1,459,814 50.89%
Barack Obama 1,358,785 47.36%

This gives Hillary a popular vote win by ~101,000 voters, and 65 delegates, to Barack Obama's 61 delegates. All well and good.

BUT Texas has, by all accounts, a different type of primary than most any other state. Called the "Texas Two-Step", one is the popular vote in a statewide election, while the second part is a caucus system where voters actually gather and decide who to support en masse. Obama tends to do very well in caucus states, most likely because of his mobilization of the youth.

In Texas, this was no different. The state, to complicate matters, stopped providing results about halfway through the counting process, but here were the latest official results from the Texas Democratic Caucus:

23,918 OBAMA 56%
18,620 CLINTON 45%

with 41% (or 3377/8224) precints reporting.

If this trend holds up, and there's no reason to think it won't, then Obama gets 38 delegates to Hillary's 30, yielding a total result from Texas of:

Hillary Clinton: 65+30 = 95 Delegates
Barack Obama: 61+38 = 99 Delegates

With plenty of margin for error on the caucus side, this means Barack Obama wins Texas in the technical sense of the word (just as George W. Bush won the US Election in 2000 versus Al Gore despite losing the popular vote), which for better or for worse, is all that matters in the Democratic primary process.

To corroborate, Obama's own campaign website shows their side winning Texas, 99 to 94. Hillary is not showing a score on her website (at least that we found).

The caveat: "Although delegates generally do not switch presidential preferences, party rules do not formally bind delegates to support the same candidate at every step in the convention process, and the allocation of delegates to the national convention is not finally determined until the June 6-7 State Convention. Therefore, these results may not reflect the final allocation of 67 delegates determined by the TDP convention/caucus process."

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