These days, it seems almost cruel to write about Hillary Clinton's floundering campaign. But not everyone has given up. In fact, I'm joining the nation's most radical feminists to pledge my support for her continued Democratic presidential bid. Run, Hillary, run.

Clinton's loyal supporters are mad. Blinded by their desire to see America's first woman president elected this year, they fail to see what smart Democrats and Republicans already know. Hillary can't win in November. If only we could find a way to keep her candidacy alive that long.

And now, as well known national liberals, including America's highest ranking congressional female, Nancy Pelosi, sound their fevered-pitch rallying cry for Hillary's departure, desperate feminists are resorting to an old playbook designed in the era of Hillary's student days at Wellesley College. They are pulling out the gender card, claiming sexism as the culprit behind the requests for Hillary to exit her contested race against Barack Obama.

Such requests for Hillary's departure are representative of a "psychological gang bang" [1] of women, according to Marcia Pappas, president of the New York State chapter of the National Organization of Women. Earlier this year, she penned a column titled "Psychological Gang Bang of Hillary is Proof We Need a Woman President," where she objected to a "patriarchal system that has persisted for millennia."

Pappas specifically questioned the decision by now-former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards to "side with" Obama. "It seems John's recent alliance with Barak (sic) sent a clear message to women everywhere," she wrote. "The message is that if a woman gets too powerful, she can count on the good ole boys ganging up on her. Hillary is a powerful, strong and intelligent woman and she deserves our support. Let us remember what we as women's rights supporters, are charged to do: SUPPORT WOMEN!"

Support them, Pappas implies, regardless of their talent, abilities, or viability.

But the non-Pelosi feminists — those still deeply committed to burning their bras at the Democratic National Convention this August in Denver — are right that Hillary should keep her campaign running.

While the media and Washington's power elite are driving themselves into a tizzy over the prospects of a contested convention, the vast majority of Democrats don't mind Hillary staying in the race. According to a recent national survey [2], an equal number of Clinton and Obama supporters — 22 percent — say that the opposing candidate should drop out of the race. It's just plain un-American to push a candidate out of the race when masses of ordinary voters still support that person.

In addition, pushing Hillary out of the race at this point would run contrary to recent history, where male Democratic presidential candidates have been allowed — and encouraged — to take their contested races all the way to the convention.

Since 1980, the Democratic Party has seen two contested races remain unresolved until late summer. In 1988, Jesse Jackson took his throngs of supporters — coupled with tireless media adoration — with him to the convention in Atlanta, where he was promptly trounced by Michael Dukakis. Likewise, in 1980, Ted Kennedy — apparently believing in the power of a last name — took his run all the way to the convention, even after delegate support clearly indicated that he would get trounced by Jimmy Carter.

While both of the surviving candidates, Dukakis and Carter, suffered embarrassing general election defeats at the hands of Republicans, this year is different. We have no vice president or sitting president vying for either party's nomination. Carter had a significant and volatile one-term presidential record to run against, while Dukakis was just a horrible candidate running against a popular vice president.

The other difference: this year's race is much closer.

Why call for Hillary's departure [3] when she still has a statistical chance of winning the necessary delegate count essential to taking the nomination? Neither Jackson nor Kennedy had such a luxury.

Nor do any of the aforementioned Democratic candidates have the emotional, evangelical, and just plain fanatical support behind Obama. Of course, this advantage assumes he is the last candidate left standing.

Then there are those Democratic strategists who are concerned about party unity, saying that Hillary's continued run will only further splinter important coalitions, including one between women and minorities. Such a viewpoint only indicates the party's own lack of faith in the ability of two of the party's most important constituencies to come together after a bruising political battle. Maybe such politicos are right.

Even if they are, however, they only risk further isolation, anger, and frustration if one candidate is artificially eliminated from consideration.

National polls show her only slightly trailing [4] in the popular vote against Republican candidate John McCain. And, when it comes to an Electoral College match up against McCain, she's mostly neck-and-neck with Obama. Yet, Hillary's biggest problem is that she just can't shake her label as a liberal.

[4]Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

But this, of course, shouldn't prompt Democrats to deter Hillary's candidacy. After all, should Democrats pick Obama, Republicans will have several months to beat up on him, exposing his desire to significantly raise taxes on America's small business owners. In other words, the Democratic Party's hard turn to the left on everything from health care to the economy isn't just a candidate problem, it's a party problem (just as McCain will have to shake the GOP image of big spender George W. Bush).

Assuming that Hillary doesn't get trounced in this month's Pennsylvania primary — thus effectively ending her candidacy — the Democratic Party, ever the crusader against institutional sexism, needs to stop crusading against her candidacy.

I love Hillary as the Democratic Party's general election candidate. I'd burn my own bra if it meant I could help keep her effort alive until November. There. I said it. Now I must get back to filling out my application to join Pappas in NOW. Think I'll be accepted?

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on PoliticsWest called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics [5], is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the 2008 election year.