Vice-President Al Gore wasted no time after his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention here in getting back on the campaign trail, which for the next four days is a paddle-boat on the Mississippi river.
Just hours after Mr Gore got a tumultuous reception from the thousands of Democratic delegates and supporters he and his running mate, Senator Joe Lieberman, were flying to Wisconsin to join the Mark Twain riverboat, from which they will campaign in key states like Illinois, Ohio and Missouri.
Although tired after the convention exertions, Mr Gore was heartened by the favourable reception to his speech, where he emerged from President Clinton's shadow proclaiming himself "my own man".
Before the speech, Democrats were expressing concern that Mr Gore was consistently behind in the polls and that voters were not seeing the more human side of the Vice-President.
An instant NBC News poll after the speech showed Mr Gore edging ahead of his Republican rival, Governor George Bush by 46 to 43 points. Before the speech virtually every poll, even those taken during the early days of the convention, showed Mr Bush ahead, in many cases by double digits.
The news that a new grand jury in Washington has begun hearing evidence against President Clinton arising from the Monica Lewinsky scandal does not appear to have damaged Mr Gore, although the leak came just hours before his speech.
Some observers saw an indirect reference to the scandal when Mr Gore said in his speech: "If you entrust me with the presidency, I know I won't always be the most exciting politician. But . . . I will work for you every day and I will never let you down."
Democrats suspect Republicans are somehow behind the leak about the grand jury but the Bush campaign moved quickly to distance itself from the leak, describing it as "inappropriate". Mr Bush himself deplored it and said that Mr Gore "needed to have his night free and clear". Mr Bush and his running mate, Mr Dick Cheney, yesterday returned to the campaign trail after a break during the Democratic Convention by flying to Memphis in Mr Gore's state of Tennessee.
Commenting on Mr Gore's speech, Mr Bush said it "encouraged divisions among Americans" and that "it's hard to lead by dividing".
Saying that the speech was "a good effort", Mr Bush commented that "I feel like there's a lot of unanswered business from the past seven years."
President Clinton called Mr Gore to praise his speech after watching it in the White House.
A spokesman said that Mr Clinton told Mr Gore that he had taken the right approach in giving the President only a brief mention.
Political commentators noted that there were really no new proposals in Mr Gore's speech. The heavy emphasis on his biographical details as portrayed in the video presented by his wife, Tipper, and by Mr Gore himself, is seen as paying off. It will help to counter the view of Mr Gore as a stiff, humourless personality.
The emphasis on helping "working families" was calculated to appeal to the traditional Democratic base and to reach out to middle class suburban Americans who would also benefit from the "targeted" tax cut proposed by Mr Gore. But Mr Bush has seized on this as stirring up "class warfare". His proposed tax cut would apply to the rich as well as the less well-off.
The full text of Mr Gore's speech is available on The Irish Times website.