Big Winner: Hillary Clinton-55%

Big Loser: Barack Obama-45%

Obama’s argument that he closed the gap is pretty pathetic. Six weeks ago, he trailed by 16 points. After getting the endorsement of Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and pouring millions upon millions of dollars into Pennsylvania, is that all you got? Yes, that’s all you got.

This should have been close, it wasn’t. Obama’s race issue and his religious blunders cost him big time. Meanwhile, Barack Obama is becoming like the 2007 New York Mets, which enjoyed a huge lead over their division rivals, The Phillies but couldn’t close the deal.

Hillary Clinton beat the expectations game. She not only did that, but she won a huge victory despite party bosses telling her its over, despite a stupid lie about Bosnia, despite Barack’s millions. Hillary triumphs, and not only that she is set up to put Obama through the ringer. North Carolina will be an Obama state for sure, but Indiana will be close, but based on Ohio, I think she’ll win Indiana. West Virginia will be a Clinton blow-out, ditto Kentucky. Oregon is close, but if trends continue, Clinton could win there.

Montana and South Dakota would be states I would have put in the Obama category before, but Clinton could win there. Ditto Puerto Rico with its large Hispanic population. And I know somewhere, Obama supporters are shouting, “Yes, but she still won’t catch him in the delegate count.” You’re right. However, to Super Delegates that’s going to be largely irrelevant. Its conceivable that in Obama, they could be looking at a potential Democratic nominee that lost 11 of the last 14 contests. That doesn’t scream electability to me and I doubt it will to them either.

Other winners and losers:

Winner: John McCain-The Democratic race goes on. That helps.

Winner: Ron Paul. We didn’t forget Paul breaking into double digits for the first time in the Republican Primary process (and I don’t expect it to be the last.)

Loser: Polls-Exit polls showing Obama by 5 or Hillary by 4 were way off the mark considerably, and these should be the most accurate. 2004 was the first time, the silence was broken early and us bloggers got to view early data. From having seen these for dozens of contests, I conclude that it would be more scientific to have monkeys throw dung at a board to determine the actual vote.

This doesn’t even begin to tell the tale of the off-base polling that showed Obama closing and in the case of one poll, leading. As people find ways to evade pollsters through cell phones through such, I think it’s to paraphrase that 1970s anti-war song with a rewrite:..

Polls, huh yeah
What are they good for?
Absolutely nothing.

Winner: Conservative Chris Hackett, who won a Congressional Primary despite a last minute smear campaign. I was proud to have contributed $35 towards his winning primary effort.

Winner: Hatton Humphrey. On the last Grassroots Pundits, I said Clinton 5, Oatney said Clinton by 15, Hatton said Clinton by 10. Result: Clinton by 10. Hatton wins the greatest prize of all: Temporary Bragging Rights.