SUDDENLY President Clinton's hold on the White House is looking less secure than a week ago. The 20-point lead over Senator Bob Dole is not holding up as solidly as over the past three months.

The Clinton camp, especially Democratic national chairman, senator Chris Dodd, had been regularly warning party workers and supporters not to get complacent over the good news from the polls. Now alarm bells are starting to ring.

Senator Dodd is here in San Diego heading a Democratic "rapid-response" team to try to stem the flood of good news pouring from the Republican convention since Mr Dole struck gold with his choice of Mr Jack Kemp as his running mate.

The Dodd team has been trying to portray Mr Kemp as an "extremist" for his economic views, which include a return to the gold standard. Hence the distribution gold-wrapped chocolates with Mr Kemp's picture.

But Mr Dole and the Republican hierarchy will make sure that Mr Kemp drops his more radical ideas during the drive for the White House.

Mr Kemp has already been made to swallow his objections to two popular Californian proposals supported by Mr Dole. One is to abolish affirmative action programmes, in favour of minorities. The second, already passed by referendum, withholds benefits from illegal immigrants and their children.

The former professional quarter-back has now publicly promised to let Mr Dole make the calls for this game.

The right-wing rebel, Mr Pat Buchanan, has also been tamed. His "peasants with pitchforks" supporters who humiliated Mr Dole in the New Hampshire primary will now work for the Republican ticket.

Better a Dole in the White House than a Clinton who vetoed a Republican Bill banning partial birth abortions, the Buchananites reason.

The controversial Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Newt Gingrich, has also toned down his strident views which were damaging Mr Dole's efforts to reach out to the more moderate, liberal wing of the party. But Mr Gingrich is busy fund-raising, at which he excels, and millions of dollars are flowing into the Republican war chest from the glamorous receptions on the beaches and in the luxury hotels of this affluent city.

At last, the polls are beginning toe shift in Mr Dole's favour - but not all of them. A Gallup survey of 627 registered voters last Sunday showed he had narrowed the Clinton lead of over 20 points to nine points in a two-horse race.

If the Reform Party's Mr Ross Perot is taken into account, Mr Clinton is at 50 per cent, Mr Dole at 38 per cent and Mr Perot at 6 per cent - a big drop from the 19 per cent he won in the 1994 election.

However, an ABC News tracking poll based on a larger sample shows Mr Dole 19 percentage points behind Mr Clinton, which is roughly where he has been for months.

But there seems little doubt that Mr Dole will come out of this convention with a "lift", which is what conventions are supposed to do. He is hammering away at his tax-cutting message and this is bound to hit the right buttons with much of the electorate.

Mr Kemp brings important strengths to the Dole campaign, which was floundering badly. Mr Kemp has been identified for years with the growth-through-tax-cuts philosophy, while Mr Dole has been seen as the stern advocate of first cutting the budget deficit.

It mushroomed during the eight years of Ronald Reagan's presidency, due in part to the early tax cuts advocated by Mr Kemp.

Mr Dole's U-turn on supply-side economics makes him vulnerable to Democratic attacks. But Republicans now hope that Mr Kemp's consistency will give some cover.

The new message is that the Republicans can cut taxes and reduce the deficit at the same time. It is what most Americans want to have. Don't we all.

But the White House will worry about other strengths that Mr Kemp will bring to the Republican ticket. A self-confessed "bleeding heart conservative" Mr Kemp has over his political career striven to make the party more sensitive to the concerns of minorities.

He jokes that he has "showered with more blacks" than other Republicans have shaken hands with, a reference to his footballing days. It may be a joke, but with Gen Colin Powell and Mr Kemp campaigning, the Republicans could weaken the traditional Democratic stranglehold over the black vote in presidential elections.

Black voters will be hearing a lot about how the Republicans are "the party of Lincoln" who, after all, freed the slaves.

Mr Kemp is also extremely popular with the Jewish population, especially in New York, because of his enthusiastic support for Israel during his 18 years in Congress. Mr Dole has at times angered the powerful Jewish lobby by his pro-Arab stance so Mr Kemp can be a useful corrective here also.

Mr Kemp will be spending a lot of time during the campaign in California, which Mr Clinton has visited 26 times during his presidency hoping to lock up its 54 electoral college votes.

Mr Kemp is a native of California where he is still held in high regard for his football exploits with the San Diego Chargers. He will help to give Mr Dole an outside chance of winning this state, which so far has been firmly behind Mr Clinton.

The euphoria of the convention, with its strict stage-managing to eliminate all dissent, will boost the Dole campaign. The numbers men behind the scenes know that the 73-year-old contender still has an enormous task in seeking to overhaul Mr Clinton by November.

But it is not now the impossible task it looked only a week ago.