Most people outside of the US have probably never heard of Bill Bradley unless they are middle-aged basketball fans, but he could be the next president.
He is a long shot at this stage but as one commentator puts it, he has "reached the semi-finals" already. How come?
Bradley was a senator for 18 years for New Jersey and stood down in 1996 declaring "politics is broken". He is now the only opponent challenging Vice-President Al Gore for the Democratic presidential nomination. Neither man is impressing the public in the charisma stakes, but Bradley differentiates himself from Gore as someone who has had another life outside politics.
Gore is well ahead of Bradley in the polls for the Democratic nomination but his lack-lustre campaign has his supporters seriously worried that he will lose the White House in 2000 to the Republicans, who are jumping on the fast-moving bandwaggon of Texas Governor George W. Bush.
President Clinton infuriated the Gore camp two weeks ago when he telephoned a New York Times reporter admitting he was concerned about his vice-president's sluggish performance and advising him to loosen up and "get out and have a good time". The President was actually trying to dampen down reports that he told friends he was worried about the Gore campaign and he insisted to the reporter that he believed Gore would eventually win. But what made the headlines was the President's concern, not the confidence.
Hence the increased interest in Bill Bradley. Faced with Gore's electoral war chest of $9 million already this year and the advantages of campaigning as a vice-president, other Democratic contenders lost heart and left the field to Bradley. The 55-year-old ex-senator from New Jersey has been impressively raising money himself and hopes to have $20 million by the end of the year.
This will make him a serious contender when the primary elections begin early next year to decide who will be the Democratic candidate.
The Bradley campaign is so deliberately low-key at this stage that the media are frustrated. He refuses to go on TV talk shows that other candidates would die for. He won't criticise opponents although he did slyly refer to Governor Bush as "Shrub", the nickname he has been given by a columnist.
Asked by reporters desperate for some crumbs to name his favourite book, Bradley replied: "I'd rather not go down that road."
"Cerebral" is the adjective most used to describe the six-foot five-inch former professional basketball star for the New York Knicks, who also captained the US Olympic team to victory against the Soviet Union in 1964.
But then he is also a Rhodes scholar with degrees from Oxford University and Princeton, has written four books and has taught in prestigious universities like Stanford and Notre Dame.
His German-born wife, Ernestine, is a professor of comparative literature and met Bradley when she was arranging for him to interview the poet, Marianne Moore, for an arts film.
It's a bit like if Garret FitzGerald had been able to campaign as a former Irish triple crown rugby international as well as an economics professor.
A Time correspondent described Bradley as campaigning "to find out can he win without losing his soul". But those who know Bradley well caution about under-estimating his laid-back style, as he clutches his favourite orange soda drink and munches baby carrots.
Senator Bob Kerrey, who had ideas to run himself says that now that there are only two people in the Democratic nomination race, Bradley cannot be written off. "Bradley has two things people like: he was a good basketball player and he's smart. If he adds a third one, that he's a leader, he'll be tough."
People seem to like the Bradley approach of intelligent listening to their concerns, while refusing to get into specifics until later in his campaign. His known interests are racial relations, care for poorer children and international trade. As a senator he specialised in tax legislation.
His main criticism of Gore at this stage is that he does not have "big ideas" and he derides the vice-president's "micro-initiatives" such as a hot line for people to use in local traffic jams.
It is of course early days. If there was not increasing concern about the Gore campaign, hardly anyone would be taking Bradley seriously as he meanders around small towns in his two-vehicle caravan. But if Gore continues to slip in the polls opposite Bush, the Democrats will be tempted to look elsewhere for a winner.
Bradley says he considered running for president in 1988 against George Bush snr but he looked in the mirror and said "I'm not ready". He looked again in 1992 and was told "don't do this", which he now sees as fortunate as his wife was soon afterwards diagnosed with breast cancer. She has now recovered.
But in 1998 Bradley decided: "I'm at the top of my game." And he is already in the semi-final.