It was the defining moment of the New Hampshire race when Hillary Clinton, the icy cool queen of the Democratic Party, welled up with emotion and squeezed out those tears that would swing her the election. No matter that the woman whose question prompted the unprecedented outpouring of emotion ended up voting for Barack Obama, Ms Clinton recognised that the electorate likes to see if its politicians bleed and it won her the day. Whether she actually meant it or indeed shed any real tears at all, is eclipsed by the bigger question of how human we want our politicians to be. Hillary realised that the most efficient way to prove her humanity and therefore, likeability, was to cry. It’s a well trodden path. Margaret Thatcher was an abhorrence to a generation and yet the sight of her trembling lip and teary eye as she left 10 Downing Street for the last time rehumanised her for a few, for a moment. the genius of Tony Blair’s spin machine that coined the phrase, ‘The People’s Princess’, and had the PM barely holding it together as he delivered news of her death to the nation, or the sight of Prime Minister Brown allowing his normally gruff persona to falter slightly as he described his son’s cystic fibrosis during a television interview, allowed our leaders to be seen in a more human and, therefore, likeable light, simply because they had exposed a chink in their armour and shown a little vulnerability. But how human we want or will allow our politicians to be is a political line that is constantly moving and easily crossed. After all, human in this context can so easily imply a failing which is not an attribute we necessarily want to see in our leaders. Imagining John Major naked but for his vest tucked into his underpants or George Galloway dressed in a Lycra catsuit while lapping milk from an actress’s cupped hands or the tacit knowledge of how human a President was all over an intern’s navy dress, could be a step too far. Human and politician are words normally only used together to distinguish a good one from the rest. As Robin Cook once observed, following revelations about his marriage break up – “If we want human politicians, we must allow them to be human.” Douglas Alexander misjudged a mood when he thought saying sorry over the election chaos would garner sympathy and make him more of a people’s person but people couldn’t quite hear the ring of truth. Alex Salmond has recognised that he needs to be more human by, ironically, playing down his intellect; Jack McConnell was human enough to admit past infidelity, knowing that being seen to tell the truth, even after the event, wins points. Wendy Alexander has still to learn what she needs to do - although being carted off to the local nick to help officers with their enquiries might go some way to show she’s fallible. Meanwhile, Annabel Goldie has used being perceived as a thoroughly human politician with a wicked sense of humour to her distinct advantage, even lampooning her own caricature by embracing her matronly image and threatening to “handbag” troublemakers. And if ever there can be such a thing as a likeable politician, Charles Kennedy’s your man but his all too human frailties cost him his power. Voters want to know how human their politicians are but revealing too much can come at a cost and remains a gamble that few are willing or brave enough to take.

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