I am shocked that it is Friday morning now and I have not heard a single person, or read a single word about one of the major reasons Hillary Clinton had some success in Pennsylvania Tuesday night. 

It was a closed primary!

Barack Obama's appeal, his strategy and his success have all been based on his ability to unite this country and bring people together.  Part of that strategy and success thus far has involved bringing outsiders into the Democratic fold. 

In many states Obama has been able to put together a coalition of Democrats, Independents and disgruntled Republicans. 

Two out of three of those groups were not allowed to vote in Pennsylvania's closed primary on Tuesday.

Take Missouri for example, a state that Barack Obama was able to eek out of the hands of Hillary Clinton.  22% of the people who voted in the Democratic primary were Independents, and they broke for Obama at a rate better than 2-1.  6% of the voters in that primary were Republicans and they broke for Obama more that 3-1.

Without those two groups Clinton would have solidly beaten Obama.

In New Mexico, a state where Independents could vote in the Democratic primary, but not Republicans, the numbers were similar.  Independents broke for Barack at a rate a little better than 2-1.  Obama lost the state 49% - 48%, but had Republicans been allowed to participate it may have tipped him over the edge.

Of course those two states held primaries before Rush Limbaugh made his bone headed, anti-American and illegal plea to Republicans to wreck havoc in the Democratic primaries by voting for Clinton, but come General Election time Obama can expect to pull in far more Republican votes than Clinton can.

Yesterday, here at eyesonobama.com, jwilkes wrote yet another excellent piece.  He ran down a list of reasons the Clinton victory in Pennsylvania should not be blown out of proportion and he was right about every single reason, but he left the one we are discussing here in this post.

I don't want to put words into his mouth, but I imagine jwilkes would agree that we could tack on the closed primary as yet another reason Clinton's victory isn't that big of a deal.

A reader left a comment on the jwilkes piece asking the question "do you guys really think he can win PA or Ohio?"  The reader goes on to say "I love Obama and after Iowa I would have said YES HE CAN. [But] I don't think he can." 

This is a perfect example of how the Clinton Campaign has moved the goalposts so many times that they are even making the Obama supporters dizzy to the point where they are willing to drink Sen. Clinton's kool-aid.

The reality is that in poll after poll Obama is not only holding his own with Clinton in hypothetical match-ups versus McCain, but in the more recent polls he is actually beating McCain by wider margins than she is in Pennsylvania.

The Clinton spin about being the better candidate is just that...spin. 

The only reason Clinton is still afloat in this campaign is the fact that Pennsylvania was a closed primary.  She would not have beat Obama in an open primary.

I, for one, am sick and tired of it.

I'm so sick of the lying, I'm sick of the media desperately trying to keep this race going, I'm sick of politics as usual, I'm sick of candidates intentionally "misspeaking", I'm sick of racial innuendos, I'm sick of George W. Bush and I'm sick of Hillary Clinton.

Drop out Hillary.  You're destroying our party and you're simultaneously helping the Republicans thwart the unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we have to save this country from decades' worth of Bush, Clinton, Reagan and Nixon policies.