Even if you're not a fan of Hillary Clinton you have to admit that her continued viability as a candidate at this point is impressive.  Obama, even with his unstoppable O-mentum, is outspending her nearly two-to-one, and still the two are neck-in-neck in contested states.  And you have to wonder how a candidate excoriated by so many for her eminent hate-ability has managed to give such an eminently lovable opponent such a run for his money.

It may be that she has benefited a bit from the naked contempt of many well-placed pundits who've gone a little overboard, and maybe even from a more subtle bias that has been so persistent it's now being lampooned left and right.

I don't have any real beef with folks who just flat-out don't like one candidate or another, but when they state what is essentially a matter of personal taste as if it's fact, it gets on my nerves.  Take the totally gratuitous op-ed "She's not my cup of tea" by the kinda snotty Elinor Lipman in this morning's Globe, where the feminist author reveals that she and her posse, "who are smart, witty, kind, intuitive women of substance" just don't like Hillary. And furthermore...

We feel no guilt and we don't apologize for our votes. We trust our taste in people; some of us make a living studying them toward a goal of putting them into books. Words and dialogue are our daily bread. Many decades of exposure to the human race give us a right to discriminate against a candidate who can't put a joke across, whose timing and ear are, well, not about to be studied at Comedy College.

Well, that's a very smart, witty, substantive reason not to like someone running for Leader of the Free World.  As to charges of sexism, Lipman assures us of her feminist credentials:

Survival of the fittest, especially in junior high and high school, taught us that we liked some girls and we didn't like others. Because we played sports, we saw women as both teammates and adversaries. As charter subscribers to Ms. magazine, we feel equal to men in our hearts, minds, and bones. Plumbing does not ensure sisterly solidarity.

And, as if anyone would even bother to argue with her Mean-Girl Comedy-College Philosophy, she concludes:

I'm not hearing the fine points of healthcare at this moment, but something narrower and closer to music, the felicitous qualities of grace, wit, and - oh, no, not that idiot's delight - sheer likability. Am I not allowed to gravitate toward that baseline human trait?

You have my permission, Elinor. 

It reminds me:  we really ought to have some way of notifying that special someone whose vote we've decided to neutralize by casting one of our one for their candidate's opponent.  Um: Cheers, Elinor!

I liken Obama's problem to that of The Sox.  Even in a winning season, they've got their rabid fans to deal with.  Fanatics can be fun, don't get me wrong — everyone should have some — but they're kind of in the Crazy Uncle category, aren't they?  You try to keep them off the front lawn.  And there's certainly no reason to ask them why they're fanatics, any more than there's any reason to ask your crazy uncle why he's crazy. Because, guess what?  Not only do they not know why they're fanatics, they don't even know they are fanatics.

Sometimes you forget to lock them in the closet, though, and next thing you know, they're out in the street in their underwear shouting what you've all been whispering indoors.  You can't really blame them if suddenly it doesn't all seem so self-evident in the harsh light of day.

Hillary-haters on the Left have felt more and more emboldened throughout this long primary season to come further and further out of the closet — supporting Obama is a great excuse for it.  But in the process many have revealed their own priggishness (peek-a-boo, Elinor!) or their self-consuming enmity (paging Maureen Dowd!).  The truth is, however loathsome Madam Clinton may be — and she has her moments, to be sure — she could not possibly be as loathsome as all that.  This degree of defamation is strictly reserved for serial rapists and mass murderers.

When even Evengelicals have had enough of the Hillary-bashing, it may be a sign that (a) she's not the anti-Christ after all, and (b) both candidates are in for a more sober assessment, if not from the mainstream press, then from the public at large, whose votes still may count for something. 

There is definitely something rancid in the preening pleasure the likes of Elinor Lipman seem to take in their put-downs and platitudes that, finally, non-fanatics, who may not be quite as "smart, witty," and so on, will find unfair, and not a little distasteful.