This election season, we've seen a cavalcade of white, middle-age men express their deep, personal contempt for the first serious female contender for the White House. Contempt, of course, that has nothing to do with Sen. Hillary Clinton's policies or her beliefs. Instead, it's been an oddly personal disdain dressed up as political analysis.

The way Mike Barnicle on MSNBC said Clinton "look[ed] like everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court." The way Bill Kristol on Fox News said that among the only people supporting Hillary Clinton were white women, and "[w]hite women are a problem, that's, you know -- we all live with that." The way CNN's Jack Cafferty likened Clinton to "a scolding mother, talking down to a child." The way Fox News' Neil Cavuto suggested Clinton was "trying to run away from this tough, kind of bitchy image." The way MSNBC's Tucker Carlson announced that "when [Clinton] comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs." The way Christopher Hitchens on CNBC described Clinton as being "sort of alternately soppy and bitchy.'"

That's all taken place in open view. And while a blog swarm did engulf Matthews in January, followed by a forced, pseudo-apology by the host -- and his attacks did prompt some women activists to carry picket signs outside the MSNBC studios -- the openly sexist comments have produced very few condemnations from within the industry and even less soul-searching from the (mostly male) press corps. In fact, in Matthews' case, the sexist outbursts have helped propel his career. That's how he landed on the cover of the Times magazine.

Why? Because misogyny pays.

Blitzer: So what do you think. Is Obama tough enough to handle this kind of tough questioning?

Fenn: Uh, I certainly think they're both tough enough. In fact, I think we're talking about alligator skin here with both of these folks. But it's funny. One complains about always getting the first question -- that was Hillary's a couple months ago. He says, "hey wait a minute, 45 minutes, no issues are discussed," you know there's a lot of back and forth, but this has been tiddly winks so far in this Democratic primary. It's going to get real tough.

Blitzer: It's small potatoes. Whoever gets the nomination can expect a whole lot worse in a general election campaign.

Madden: Oh absolutely. We were joking around before saying "there's no crying in baseball" and this is one of those instances. When you run for president you are actually asking for the right to be humiliated. That is an odd thing but very often times in debates like these, that get very tough, where you get tough questions, you're constantly probed and being hammered by the media, you can actually come out above, looking very presidential if you stand by those attacks and you come out ahead of them.

Blitzer: If you want to be president, Kevin is absolutely right, you have to expect that everything is fair game, almost every part of your life, and certainly your finances or anything like that.