Marcus: Clinton, 'unbound,' embraces her gender

WASHINGTON - You know something has changed in the state of gender and politics when the Democratic front-runner jokingly alludes to the, er, plumbing differences that necessitated a longer-than-planned mid-debate bathroom break.

[...] it was an at times awkward and muted embrace, undergirded by the campaign's conviction that, although the country was ready to elect a woman, voters also needed to be convinced of her toughness.

"The problems for women candidates is they have to show they have the standing and gravitas to fight with the big boys in Washington, but they also have to be a human being," said Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg.

The single-digit slice of voters who say they would not elect a woman are not Clinton supporters in any event, in the campaign's view, and are outweighed by the facts that women voters make up more than a majority of the electorate and tend to vote more heavily Democratic.

[...] Clinton Unbound was on full display during last week's debate.

The coda of her opening statement was a reference to what would be the historic nature of her election: "Yes, finally fathers will be able to say to their daughters, you, too, can grow up to be president."

Clinton engaged in a similar diversion on why Democrats, in the year of the outsider, should embrace the ultimate insider: "Well, I can't think of anything more of an outsider than electing the first woman president" - although she went on to say that was not the rationale for her run.