With new polls showing him falling further behind in the presidential race at seven weeks before the election, Governor George Bush is facing defeat unless new campaign tactics work.
The latest Newsweek poll shows Vice-President Al Gore ahead by 52 to 38 percentage points among likely voters. The daily Gallup tracking poll for CNN/USA Today shows the gap at 49 to 41.
Further bad news for the Bush campaign comes from polls in the vital industrial states of Michigan, Illinois and Pennsylvania, where Mr Bush has fallen behind after earlier leads. Even in Ohio, where Republican candidates usually have to win to get to the White House, Mr Gore has now caught up with Mr Bush.
Both parties will spend millions of dollars in TV advertising this week in these states.
Mr Tad Devine, a Gore campaign strategist, said: "Gore's advantage in critical battlegrounds has grown enormously and is continuing to grow." However, he added that "it is a long way to election day".
Mr Bush will this week campaign intensively in nine states over six days and travel over 6,000 miles. He is hoping he can impress voters with a new message even if they are more interested in the coverage of the Olympics.
Reacting to the latest polls, Mr Bush said: "I never thought it would be anything but a close race. I'm running against a formidable opponent. I am the challenger. But I'm going to win because I'm right on the issues."
Observers believe that the three televised debates between Mr Bush and Mr Gore which have now been agreed will be a vital factor in the closing stages of the election campaign. The election is on November 7th.
The Bush campaign has signalled that in a new strategy he will attack Mr Gore on both character and the issues. Up to now Mr Bush had focused on attacks on Mr Gore's credibility and tried to identify him with illegal fund-raising in the 1996 election and with President Clinton's flawed behaviour as in the Monica Lewinsky affair.
However, the polls are increasingly showing that voters are not responding to such personal attacks. Instead they are swinging towards Mr Gore because they view his character favourably since the Democratic convention last month and like his policies on protecting healthcare and spending more on education.
The Bush campaign has now decided that it needs to change what is seen to be a losing strategy. Trust in Mr Gore's honesty and integrity has increased among voters while at the same time they are unimpressed with Mr Bush's plan for a $1.3 trillion tax cut over 10 years based on budget surpluses which may not materialise.
The hope that Mr Bush could beat Mr Gore simply on character and personal appeal is "dead", a campaign official has told the Wall Street Journal. The Bush campaign has decided that it must tackle Mr Gore on issues as well as character and make detailed comparisons between their policies.
The new approach began with a Bush speech to Republicans in California beamed by satellite from his ranch in Texas at the weekend. He used the speech to make sharp distinctions with Mr Gore on taxes, spending, prescription drugs for the elderly and reform of the social security retirement system. He also contrasted his basic philosophy of government with that of Mr Gore. "My opponent's ideas are shaped by a quarter-century of Washington and they were tired even when his career began." Mr Bush said