Yesterday's Pew poll gives an interesting perspective on the question of Hillary Clinton's electability. It turns out that her favorable rating among all voters is in statistically identical to Rudy Giuliani's — in fact, it's nominally one point higher. Hillary gets a 55% approval rating, with 21 points of that very favorable, compared to Rudy's 54% favorable, with only 12% very favorable. Not bad for a woman who's been through multiple national campaigns worth of dirt, to be just as liked, and more intensely liked, as "America's Mayor."

On the other hand, Hillary's reputation for being a polarizing figure also has a lot of evidence to back it up. Hillary's unfavorables are at 39%, with 21 points very unfavorable, compared to Rudy's much better 28%, with nine points very unfavorable. Hillary has the highest favorables among all the presidential candidates, while she also has the highest unfavorables. But there's one thing America's Mayor has over Hillary: He hasn't been through the ringer like she has.

So does this matter? If 39% of the people hate Hillary, that just means that after years of getting to know her, a strong minority don't intend to vote her — and a majority are within her grasp. What's new?

As for Rudy, what might his ratings look like once his dirty laundry has been aired before a wider audience — for example, his false claim to have spent as much time at the World Trade Center site as the rescue workers? As it is, he's only about as popular as ... Hillary Clinton.