The purpose of this article is to examine and compare the construction of a supposednew masculinity ideal, “the new man”, in relation to political leadership, andto interpret how the gender norms there within affect the credibility as a politician.The study extends to the reporting from 2010 in the daily newspaper DagensNyheter about three Swedish male elite politicians with various party affiliation andideologies. Our findings shows that flexibility is a prominent new-man-marker, thatthe relationship between flexibility and credibility as a male politician is complexand that in a Swedish/Nordic context the new man is constructed as gender equal.One conclusion is that some male politicians benefit more than others – who maybe pushing the boundaries (too far) for what may be considered as masculine –from being positioned within the discourse of the new man.