Clinton walks tightrope on strength and emotion

By Jeff Mason

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Be strong or show some emotion? Stick to policy or share your private life?

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton faces this challenge as she tries to become the first woman in the highest office in the land: how to appear human without appearing weak.

Clinton, a New York senator who has struggled to overcome public perceptions that she is aloof, peppered her speeches this week with references to her childhood and personal life in a twin effort to give substance to her policy goals while opening a window to her personal life.

Analysts say women running for office face a challenge their male counterparts do not in walking a line between exhibiting strength and showing their feelings.

The former first lady has largely favored strength, emphasizing her resume of experience and readiness to serve as commander-in-chief as she campaigns for the Democratic nomination to contest November's presidential election.

Still, a rare teary-eyed moment shortly before the New Hampshire nominating contest was widely credited with turning the result in her favor, handing her a much-needed victory over rival Barack Obama and rejuvenating her candidacy after a loss in the first nominating contest in Iowa that some predicted would be fatal to her presidential hopes.

Since then, that softer side has been on display less often during the see-saw battle with Obama, an Illinois senator seeking to become the first black U.S. president, while her experience argument has produced some holes.

Clinton was forced to back away from her claim that she came under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady after a video contradicted her version.

"So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human which, you know, for some people, is a revelation," she told reporters on Tuesday.

Is it a revelation? Maybe not. But even supporters say they would like to see more of the 60-year-old candidate's human side.

"She seems standoffish to ... the public, like when she's on television," said Stacey Barron-Salvio, 39, a Clinton supporter and mother of six who was attending a rally in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

"I've never heard her really talk about her personal stories that much. I think if she showed some of those personal sides -- even if there are some flaws -- it makes her look more human and it makes her appeal to more people."

HUMAN SIDE

Clinton is showing that side this week. At events in Pennsylvania, Washington and North Carolina, she touched on her courtship with husband Bill, loans she took out as a law school student, her late father's efforts to find cheap gasoline and a trip she made to the emergency room as a young child.

In a speech on Monday outlining her proposals to curb the U.S. housing crisis, Clinton told an audience in Philadelphia about the former president's purchase of their first house.