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She's mowing down everything in her path.

There was Hillary Clinton on early morning television yesterday, fresh from her Pennsylvania primary victory the night before, in what I call full mental jacket (plus necklace), deliciously upending every gender stereotype on the block by being the most macho politician on the airwaves.

The senator was being challenged to explain her latest campaign ad that showed, among other threats to American security, a picture of Osama bin Laden, as if to convince voters that without her, the terrorists would surely win.

"I would consider him a person we must take out," she replied serenely, making me wonder for a moment whether she was secretly thinking Obama and not Osama.

How macho is she? She makes George W. Bush look like a wimp, John McCain look tender-hearted and her main rival Barack Obama look like a whipped puppy.

How odd - and no doubt disappointing to his supporters - that even though he's still ahead in the delegate count, the man viewed as the tastiest political candidate since John F. Kennedy doesn't seem able or willing to confront the full-on tenacity of his main rival.

Lukewarmly congratulating her on her victory and then, having hightailed it to Indiana where he reverted to his impressive but now familiar rhetorical grace, Mr. Obama looked like he needed, well, a shot of testosterone to take the lady on.

In fact, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd mischievously wondered: "As the husband of Michelle, does he know better than to defy the will of a strong woman? Or is he simply scared of Hillary because she's scary?"

Ms. Clinton is now viewed as so "scary" and even mean in her campaign tactics that The New York Times editorial board, who once (in what now seems like another century) endorsed her for the Democratic nomination, pleaded with her to "call off the dogs."

In another interview Ms. Clinton gave recently, she said that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president, "we would be able to totally obliterate them."

Whoa. That kind of commander-in-chief cojones, combined with an almost otherworldly resilience and determination on the campaign trail - despite Hillary deathwatches and pundits and party members calling for her to quit - has evoked equal amounts of admiration, terror and, well, irritation in Clinton watchers.

We can't get enough of this fascinating psychological case study, a middle-aged woman who positively glows from within every time she gets knocked down and bounces back up.

"The American people don't quit and they deserve a president who doesn't quit either," she said triumphantly in her Pennsylvania victory speech. That speech was charming and inclusive and low-key compared with her campaign tactics.

The way she has attacked Mr. Obama - which, however assertive, is arguably well within the boundaries of cut and thrust politics - has made some high-profile Democrats squirm.

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore recently endorsed Mr. Obama, saying the Clinton campaign had become "disgusting."

Yet there is grudging respect for her from many sides. During CNN's coverage of the primary results, conservative pundit Bill Bennett expressed his awe of Ms. Clinton's stamina, calling her the "Energizer bunny" (after which he immediately wondered whether he could call a female politician a bunny).

Well, she ain't soft and cuddly, that's for sure. But she's still, despite the macho behaviour, very much a woman. In fact, Ms. Clinton may be changing behavioural standards for female politicians everywhere, crashing through the ultimate psychological glass ceiling: the one that ordains that women have to be "nice" or else they will be seen as "bitches."

Whether you consider her to be authentic or a five-star phony, Ms. Clinton is no longer trapped in the bitch ditch. With a ferocious command of facts at her fingertips - no one seems as policy-prepared as she does - and that Olympian tenacity, she seems all of a sudden to have transcended gender.

Was this what we wanted? If so, I wonder why Ms. Clinton's toughness is making some of us uneasy in a new way. Now I'm hearing women who once were drawn to her clearing their throats.

This isn't exactly what we meant, they say. "She's really starting to bug me," said one woman, worried about Ms. Clinton's bruising effect on the Democratic chances of winning the election.

Yet all I know is that while her approach may not be "nice" or filled with hope or idealism or any of those very fine Obamaesque themes, if I had to slog through crap of any kind and end up a winner, I'd channel my inner Hillary to do so. She is one tough mother.

Whether she can also transcend character or baggage or even numbers to win the nomination is quite another matter.

But for the sheer delight - and intrigue - of watching her, she's still the best thing that's ever happened to women in politics.

jtimson@globeandmail.com