With polls showing the presidential race the closest for many years with just two months to go, Governor George Bush plans to step up his campaign against an increasingly confident Vice-President, Mr Al Gore.
The past two weeks since the Democratic convention have been a nightmare for the Bush camp as the big lead over Mr Gore suddenly evaporated and Mr Bush made a series of gaffes including calling a well-known journalist "an asshole".
This week, a spate of newspaper articles portraying Republicans as demoralised at their candidate's performance have led the Bush campaign to change tactics and become more aggressive.
"I've got to get out and talk to people and I'm going to do a lot more of it," Mr Bush told factory workers yesterday in Pennsylvania, which is a vital battleground state for both candidates. "I'm going to tell you what I think and let the political chips fall where they may."
The results of the latest polls showing the two candidates neck and neck have come as a relief to the Bush campaign, as traditionally the candidate ahead in the first polls after Labour Day weekend wins the election.
The Washington Post/ABC News poll shows the two candidates tied with 47 per cent support among likely voters.
The closely watched Gallup poll for USA Today/CNN shows a large swing to Mr Gore over the past month but his lead of three per cent (47 per cent to 44 per cent) is within the margin of error and is regarded as a dead heat.
However, the same poll gave Mr Bush a 14 percentage point lead coming out of the Republican Convention in early August so the trend is clearly worrying for the Bush campaign.
Both polls show that Mr Gore has opened up a large "gender gap" with women voters, who support him by 52 per cent to 38 per cent.
Men support Mr Bush by the same margin but women are more likely to vote.
Over a range of issues such as education, health, the economy and social security, Mr Gore has made large gains among voters.
Mr Bush holds a clear lead on only two issues, defence and taxes. He is also seen as a "stronger leader" but Mr Gore is closing the gap in this area also.
Republicans have been dismayed by the way that Mr Gore has built on the "bounce" he got at the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles while Mr Bush's lead from his convention was quickly wiped out.
Mr Bush and his running mate, Mr Dick Cheney, have been criticised for a lacklustre campaign style compared to the energetic methods of Gore-Lieberman, which have won admiring media comment.
Mr Bush is also seen to have made a mistake in not accepting the plan for three presidential televised debates proposed months ago by the official debate commission.
Instead, Mr Bush has tried to force Mr Gore to replace two of these debates with TV appearances on Larry King Live and Meet the Press, which have formats which Mr Bush prefers.
Mr Gore has said he will only appear on those programmes with Mr Bush if the latter also accepts the original plan for three debates before invited audiences in a town hall and university setting.
Mr Bush is now perceived to be afraid of debating with Mr Gore, who has a formidable reputation for demolishing opponents, and is seeking a compromise.
Mr Bush has hit back at Republicans who were cited in newspaper articles as viewing him as "defensive, bumbling, weary, detached or peevish".
He has denounced them as fair weather friends who are "ready to jump out of the foxhole before the first shell is fired". But critics point out that this was another of his verbal gaffes as soldiers usually jump into foxholes to avoid shellfire.