The last time the Democrats met in Los Angeles was to nominate John F. Kennedy for president in 1960. Eight years later his brother, Robert, was assassinated here after winning the California primary. It is a city of both sweet and bitter memories.

This convention will pay tribute to the Kennedy family, but the main business is to keep the White House in Democrat hands for at least another four years. Tomorrow in Michigan, Vice-President Al Gore on his way to Los Angeles meets President Clinton on his way back for a "passing of the torch" ceremony.

There won't be any torch and the encounter can seem contrived, but the symbolism is very important for Mr Gore who must this week get out from under the Clinton shadow and prove to a sceptical US that he is his own man.

It is thanks to Mr Clinton that Mr Gore is running for the Presidency with eight years of experience as No 2 in the White House. But it is also thanks to Mr Clinton that Mr Gore is struggling to distance himself from a man who is seen to have sullied the Oval Office by his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky. This is the man Mr Gore has called "one of the greatest presidents" in American history.

Tonight in Los Angeles Mr Clinton will make his valedictory address to the Democratic Party and is certain to get a rapturous reception which will be more emotional than the charismatically-challenged Mr Gore will get for his acceptance speech on Thursday night.

Hillary Clinton is also billed to speak tonight, and the prime-time coverage should help her Senate campaign in New York while reinforcing the impression that this is a Clintonian event.

Mr Gore will hope that this night of Clinton nostalgia following two huge fund-raisers for the couple - in his case for his presidential library - will not damage him as he prepares for the speech on Thursday which aides say will "introduce Al Gore to America".

It can seem strange that after eight years in the second most important post Mr Gore should need to be introduced to Americans. But this is part of the deliberate ploy of escaping from the Clinton shadow. Instead of seeing Mr Gore as a dutiful and somewhat robotic No 2 to Mr Clinton, the electorate is to discover "the real Gore".

The convention and TV viewers will see a "This Is Your Life" video. It will show Mr Gore on the family farm in Tennessee, at Harvard, doing his duty in Vietnam, as a loving husband and father of an ideal American family, and as a man passionately concerned about global warming who wrote a highly-acclaimed book called Earth in the Balance.

Viewers will be told that Mr Gore was an investigative journalist before hearing the call of politics and winning the Senate seat his father lost because of his stance on civil rights.

Family tragedies may be touched on - the death of a beloved sister from lung cancer, how his son narrowly escaped death when hit by a car. The idea is to show the more human side of Mr Gore that eludes many people who see him as a boring policy wonk.

The convention will also get a look at Senator Joseph Lieberman, who has intrigued voters as the first Jewish-American - and a strict Orthodox one at that - to be a vice-presidential candidate. He and Mr Gore have differed in the past on such issues as education and reform of social security, but these will be glossed over in the heady atmosphere of a convention.

The main target will be the strong Republican challenge from Governor George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whom Mr Gore will portray as the "old guard" who would drag the country and its booming economy back to the recession and budget deficits which Mr Clinton and Mr Gore inherited from the Reagan-Bush years.

With all polls showing Mr Bush well ahead of Mr Gore, this convention could be make-or-break for the Vice-President. If the Bush lead is still in double digits when the campaign officially begins on Labour Day in early September, Mr Gore will be in deep trouble.

He has not yet solidified his Democratic base, where 20 per cent are still unsure and may yet go to Mr Bush. The majority of independent swing voters, who often decide an election, are tilting towards Mr Bush. Among male voters Mr Gore trails Mr Bush in the latest poll by 27 per cent to 58 per cent. Women voters prefer Mr Gore, but only by 5 per cent.

So Mr Gore has the proverbial mountain to climb this week.

President Clinton will do his best for the man he wants to carry on his legacy. But he will hurt Mr Gore if he does not stand back far enough to let voters see Mr Gore as a president for the future, not just as the junior partner in the Clinton-Gore years.