ANYONE wondering why a candidate as apparently uninspiring as Bob Dole is looking so strong in the race for the White House should know that the Republican front runner has a secret weapon up his sleeve. Let's call it the Tortellini factor.
As Mr Dole gears up for Super Tuesday and what could be another clean sweep of state primaries, he will perhaps spare a thought for his good friends in Castel D'Aiano, a small mountain village in central Italy, who have been waving flags, fixing "Dole for President" stickers to their car bumpers and offering their unconditional moral support ever since the senator from Kansas threw his hat into the presidential ring.
Castel D'Aiano is the spot in the Apennines where 22 year old Lieut Robert Dole of the US 10th Mountain Division almost died on April 14th, 1945, the day that the Americans and local partisans mounted their final offensive to overcome the German occupiers of northern Italy.
Since the war, it has also been a regular pilgrimage site for Senator Dole, who has won the hearts of the villagers and, since last year, been honoured with a plaque erected on the site where he was wounded.
It is a curious friendship, to say the least. Mr Dole is an old school conservative and a vigorous anti communist; the 1,700 citizens of Castel D'Aiano, including most members of the "Friends of Bob Dole Committee" are, on the other hand, most definitely on the pinker side of the political spectrum.
It would be a little simplistic to call them communists but, in common with the rest of the Emilia Romagna region around Bologna - heartland of both the Italian partisan movement and the PDS, successor to the old Italian Communist Party - they have voted for the left at every national election since the war.
The paradox is not lost on the local community. "I suppose under normal circumstances I would be rooting for Clinton," admitted Gabriele Ronchetti, the village's journalist, insurance broker and Bob Dole Committee co ordinator all roiled into one. "But it's different when you know the person. This is not about politics, it's about human relations."
Human relations, yes, but also a fair amount of myth making. According to local gossip, Lieut Dole fell heroically while liberating Castel D'Aiano from the Germans and survived his terrible wounds only thanks to the kindness of a local family the Tondis, who took him in and treated him until he could be ferried out to a military hospital.
In fact, Castel D'Aiano was liberated at the beginning of March 1945, more than a month earlier, and Lieut Dole was hit in the struggle to liberate Roffeno, the next village to the north, which saw some of the most vicious fighting of the whole campaign. He was transported straight away to a US army hospital in Pistoia, around 50 miles to the south, and never even spoke to the good people of Castel D'Aiano.
His association with the village dates only from 1962, when he made his first trip back to the area and stopped his official black Cadillac at a cafe to ask for directions to the hillock where he had fought his terrible last battle.
By happy coincidence the cafe owner, Pierino Tondi, also ran a restaurant and in no time the newly elected senator and his two bodyguards were tucking into bowls of the local speciality, tortellini, generously sprinkled with finest fresh parmesan cheese.
Suddenly the vagaries of local politics, the Cold War and the Red menace didn't seem so important any more. Mr Dole was transformed into an instant Italophile. "We've never talked about politics, on any of his visits, Mr Tondi recounted. "He likes to come into the kitchen and see the pasta boiling."
Now that Mr Dole seems sure to win the Republican nomination, Castel D'Aiano plans to send a delegation to Washington for election day - armed of course with plenty of fresh pasta and a large hunk of parmesan.