Of course he was confident, Mr Albert Reynolds said on his way into the parliamentary party meeting in Leinster House. "They know me for 20 years. They know the experience I have, that I am very suitable for the job and that I'm going out there to win." He said that once the decision was taken "you'll see a full, united Fianna Fail family coming out to back whoever the winner may be".
Ninety minutes later, the decision of the Fianna Fail parliamentarians was transmitted via a reporter's mobile phone to the journalists and non-Fianna Fail politicians waiting outside.
"There's women for you now," said a former Minister. "Jaysus they sure know how to shaft 'em," said a Senator.
Fianna Fail officials had spent the previous 90 minutes explaining to journalists the route Mr Reynolds would take on the way to his victory press conference in Buswells Hotel.
His wife, Kathleen, would come out with him, as would his son, Philip, and one of his daughters. They were not sure which one. He would not stop to talk to the media until he got inside the hotel, we were told.
Out through the swing door of Leinster House came Prof Mary McAleese, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern beside her, several Government Ministers around her. Thirty yards back was Mr Reynolds, his son, Philip, Mr Brian Crowley MEP and a number of other supporters.
As the party's TDs, senators and MEPs emerged, many looked stony faced and shocked; a few quietly giggled. None said anything. There was no cheering and whooping, none of the usual show of pride in a decision to choose a candidate.
Mr Reynolds frankly answered the ridiculous questions as to whether he was disappointed by saying that yes, of course he was. "But this is her day, I'll be with her all the way," he said.
Prof McAleese proposed to provide "a presidency of embrace", and as we pondered her meaning she elaborated: "I mean the word embrace in the widest possible sense." She also promised to supply some "caring outreach".
Sitting silently at the top table as Prof McAleese spoke, Mr Reynolds looked like a man who could do with some embrace, or a bit of caring outreach. His face was fixed in an unreadable expression. It remained so as Mr Ahern was asked about the concerted campaign within the party and the Cabinet to stop him from getting the nomination. His answer suggested that he may not have heard the question.
Mr Reynolds sat quietly until the end. Prof McAleese, a nonmember of Fianna Fail paid tribute to Mr Reynolds, a former leader and Taoiseach and Mr Michael O'Kennedy, a former senior Minister, for "their grace and their serenity" in accepting their extraordinary defeat.