LOS ANGELES - With Democrats looking for nothing less than an epiphany to breathe new life into their struggling campaign for the White House, all eyes turned yesterday to the man who embodies many of the party's misgivings but is the only one who can rekindle its hopes - its candidate, for better or worse, Al Gore.
The Vice-President would seem to have every advantage - experience, brains and the benefit of the longest boom in post-war United States history - but this week's Democratic Convention has revealed a party fraught with doubt about his suitability for the top job.
The Republican nominee, George W. Bush, has been ahead in opinion polls for months and appears to enjoy a more favourable public perception even on issues where Gore should in theory excel, such as foreign and defence policy.
Since no Democrat seriously believes that Bush, with his limited experience of public office, can hold a candle to Gore's grasp of the issues, they suspect the real deficiency is one of character. One poll this week showed that 47 per cent of voters had decided that whoever they picked for President it would not be Gore.
On top of that, there are fears that Gore is taking the Democrats so far to the right - by choosing conservative Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, for example - that he is alienating the very people he needs in order to show differences between his positions and those of Bush.
Confidence in the Democratic Party has been so shaky that even this week's high points - President Bill Clinton's bravura speech and a similarly compelling oration by Lieberman - have been tempered by the same haunting questions: Will this be enough? Will Gore be able to top these fine performances, or will he fall short?
The strategy that has emerged is to go populist, to show Gore as being far more in touch with the concerns of ordinary people than the ordinary people might suspect. To bring the Vice-President down off his intellectual perch, much of the focus has been on his "human journey" - presenting his career in dramatic, personal terms and emphasising his other side as a family man with down-to-earth feelings and tastes just like any other American.
As she presented his nomination to the floor, Gore's daughter Karenna Gore Schiff reminisced about his making breakfast for the family - even if it was just toast. Gore's room-mate from his Harvard days, the actor Tommy Lee Jones, recalled them shooting pool together.
There has also been an effort to convert Gore's awkwardness into strengths by making it the butt of self-deprecating jokes.
When looking for a director to shoot a video of the Gore family holiday in North Carolina earlier this month, Gore made the inspired choice of Spike Jonze, the man who made the wacky comedy Being John Malkovich.
Just as the characters in that film find a portal leading into the brain of the eponymous actor, so Jonze was asked to find a portal into the enigmatic head of the Vice-President.
In the video, shown at the convention, Gore appears relaxed and understanding of the misgivings about him. "The guy standing motionless on stage behind the President - what the hell makes him think he can be President?" Gore laughs.
He also admits his discomfort at the glad-handing side of politics. "I'm a lot more comfortable with the idea of rolling up my sleeves and making the system work than I am with the campaigning."
His appearances this week suggest he is energised and ready to meet the challenge. Whether he succeeds or fails, he knows it is all down to him.
- INDEPENDENT
Does Al Gore have what it takes?
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