The man raised from birth to be President of the United States, the serious boy reared in the topfloor suite of a hotel along Embassy Row in Washington, appears to be stumbling badly in his quest for the presidency.
Vice-President Albert Gore is, depending on the various polls, running anywhere between 13 and 17 points behind Governor George W. Bush. Although a just released Newsweek poll suggests a closer race, few expected that Mr Gore would be trailing by this much at this stage of the campaign, and supporters are scrambling for explanations.
Mr Gore's troubles are focused by two national polls taken in June. The first, an ABC News/Washington Post poll of 1,204 adults, found that Americans trust Mr Bush to handle the s US economy better than Mr Gore s abilities by a margin of 46 to 41 per cent. That presents a nagging challenge to Mr Gore's campaign. The Clinton-Gore administration has presided over the longest lasting period of economic prosperity and expansion in modern times. Inflation is nearly non-existent, the dollar is strong, interest rates are moderate, the stock market boom has swelled the purses of middle-class Americans, and jobs are plentiful. And yet the public seems unwilling to give Mr Gore any credit.
The reason for that may be the leadership issue. In the same poll, 65 per cent of respondents called Mr Bush "a strong leader", while only 48 per cent saw Mr Gore in that light. Eight years of playing second fiddle to Mr Clinton has taken a mighty toll on Mr Gore.
The second survey, the Harris Poll, revealed a startling ignorance of the US economy, with 40 per cent not knowing the economy was growing, and 35 per not knowing jobs were increasing. The New York Times commented: "Clearly, a majority of Americans are generally aware of good economic times, but many underestimate how good they are, and a substantial minority seem totally clueless."
Some observers suggest part of Mr Gore's problem is that he has yet to distinguish himself from Mr Bush on key policy differences. USA Today said: "They could just as well be running on the same ticket. Both candidates endorse free trade, endorse a balanced budget and agree that a first-class education system is a critical federal priority in a hightech information age . . . " In a parody piece, Time magazine said Mr Gore and Mr Bush were running on the same ticket, saving the voters $15.7 billion in campaign costs.
But there may be something else afoot in Mr Gore's stumbling. A Democratic Party activist in Los Angeles, preparing for the National Democratic Convention in August - a televised event considered critical to Mr Gore - was asked why Mr Gore is doing so poorly.
"Because he is doing everything wrong, everything. It's amazing," she said. "Their campaign management is a mess. They are ignoring their core constituencies. Telephone calls are not returned." Indeed, it does seem that the Gore campaign has switched strategies several times. In mid-June he began a "progress and prosperity tour" in New York that will take him to key states, along with a $25 million advertising campaign that will run television spots in 15 states. In addition, his campaign is dispatching surrogates, or what the political campaign business calls "validators" or character witnesses, to tell the American people what a decent man Mr Gore is. Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts have already hit the campaign trail on s his behalf.
Their essential message will be similar to one voiced last week in Seattle by Governor Gary Locke at a fund-raising event. Mr Locke followed a script written for him by the Gore campaign. It read, in part: "He's not only a great person, but he's very funny. He is a person who is committed to his family. He is always picking up the phone to check on his Mom."
The Bush campaign issued a press release that gleefully listed six Gore incarnations since last summer: the underdog, the average Joe, the alpha male, the crusading reformer, the negative attacker, and now the thinking man with a heart.
While neither Mr Gore nor Mr Bush is given to Socratic fits of abstraction, Mr Gore is generally thought of as the more intelligent educated man. s California political director sounded a certain overconfident note last week.
But this far behind in the polls, with less than four months to go before election day, the time has come for him to break a sweat.