I can't see a path to victory, or even viability, for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, still a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. She hasn't won a single primary, and finished behind both Joe Biden and runner-up Bernie Sanders in her home state of Massachusetts.

Votes are still being counted, but as of Wednesday afternoon, Warren had won just 36 delegates; Biden 433 and Sanders 388. The Washington Post reports that Warren is considering her options. (Update: Thursday, multiple media outlets reported that Warren is expected to end her campaign.)

There are dozens of primaries and hundreds of delegates yet to go. But the board and the narrative are set, and the 2020 Democratic primary is the two-man race it was always going to be.

If you're not into Elizabeth Warren, that's OK. This column isn't for you. But if you are, I know how you feel today.

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It feels like we're here, again, and that we're kind of always here, weary in an America that too often sidelines qualified, competent, accomplished women for less-qualified white men. An America that trusts us with its children and its schools, at least some of its Senate seats and its governorships, but eyeballs the presidency and says, ehhh, maybe this one isn't for you.

So maybe you also feel a little angry. That's OK. I'm angry, too.

It's been a long few weeks of seeing Warren, and fellow highly qualified candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, eclipsed in the polls and at the polls, deemed less electable than a youthful small-town mayor, a self-described socialist, and a recently Republican billionaire with an atrocious history of racism and sexism.

We can talk about all the reasons why she is not winning. Vox's Matthew Yglesias points to the limitations of Warren's base; she's the first choice of many college-educated whites, especially college-educated white women, but her career in academia, her detailed policies and her serious intellectual accomplishments don't help her much outside of that exclusive demographic. (Despite Yglesias' findings, here in my own Detroit bubble, Warren is pretty popular among African-American voters.)

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I'd add that Warren's ideology defies the kind of easy classification horse-race coverage enjoys: progressive, but not radical. A proponent of regulated capitalism, but not a socialist. A champion of big, systemic change, but one who understands that sometimes change takes time. Not a moderate, but not Bernie.

But we've also got to talk about what it means to be a woman who wants to be president of the United States.

Four years ago, Warren's name was a voucher that allowed speakers to disavow misogyny while explaining their own opposition to Hillary Clinton. They'd vote for a woman, just not this woman. In fact, they'd vote for Elizabeth Warren, if she were running.

This year, Warren is this woman. And they are still not voting for her.

"I just don't think my 18-year-old son will vote for someone who looks like his grandma," one friend said, explaining his first-time voter son's support for Bernie Sanders.

"She reminds me of a schoolteacher," said an acquaintance, noting his support for Biden.

"My mom has (this) argument in her Sunday school class," another friend said. "Some of the men voted for Trump. They said the Bible said women can’t lead."

She started strong, a top-tier candidate with actual plans to implement her progressive policies, a senator and former law professor with a strong record of accomplishment, and a willingness to center groups most candidates don't. Black women I know were impressed that Warren's policy agenda included reducing African-American maternal mortality; advocates for the disabled praised her authentic commitment to disability rights.

She hasn't run a perfect campaign. Warren should have apologized earlier for claiming Native American ancestry, a family story that may be technically true, but didn't recognize that identity is about lived experience and cultural bonds, not simply DNA. She disappointed some progressives with her tactical approach to Medicare For All.

Warren supporters who scanned last month's results, decided she couldn't win, and placed a strategic vote for another candidate weren't wrong. It's all right to vote with your head, and not your heart, even when doesn't feel great. It's also OK to vote your conscience, even if there is little hope.

Electability is a slippery term, and one most of us struggle to define. It's premised not on our own judgment, but how we expect others to feel. And at some point, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. "She's electable if you f***ing vote for her," a pro-Warren t-shirt reads, and it's as simple as that. Voters want to pick a winner, and that often means perpetuating a system that only deems certain kinds of candidates worthy of that term.

A candidate's first job is to get elected, and she's not getting it done. That's how the game is played.

But honestly, the game stinks.

Nancy Kaffer is a Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com.