Bill Clinton, the country's most astute politician, has become the invisible man of Al Gore's run to take his place in the White House. Monica Lewinsky might have something to do with it.
Gore and his campaign have decided that in spite of his popularity, Clinton is not wanted on his campaign bus. Raise lots of money? Yes. But joint appearances? No way.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has been glad to have her husband along as she campaigns in New York for a Senate seat. But New York is not middle America, where Clinton on the platform could damage Gore among independent voters.
Clinton is said to be puzzled and offended that Gore is shutting him out just when he may need a helping hand. And Clinton is said to be angry that his Vice-President for eight years may be blowing an election while the US enjoys its greatest prosperity ever under Clinton-Gore. And this against a Texas governor who has trouble remembering the names of foreign leaders.
Worried Democrats are urging Gore and his advisers to bring Clinton into his campaign for the last furlong. Maybe he can energise the party base which is being eroded by the Green Party's Ralph Nader in swing states.
California, with its huge prize of 54 electoral college votes, has been seen as a sure thing for Gore who no longer bothers to advertise there. But Bush has been creeping up and the Democratic governor, Gray Davis, has gone over Gore's head in a direct appeal to Clinton for help.
He has heard the call and next week will head for California and take in a few other states on the way. But the Gore campaign emphasises that this will be a "get out the vote" exercise and is aimed at helping Democrats in tight Congressional races.
The Gore game plan since the symbolic passing of the baton from Clinton during the Democratic convention last August has been to go it alone. As the criticism mounted in the past week that the Democrats were foolishly neglecting their greatest asset, Gore told reporters on his campaign plane: "Look, this is a campaign that I am running on my own. And as I've said on previous occasions, I am who I am. I'm running in my own right with my own vision about the future of our country." This followed a damaging front-page article in the influential New York Times headlined "Once Close to Clinton, Gore Keeps a Distance". The article described a President waiting for a phone call from Gore that does not come.
"Mr Clinton is both hurt by the personal rebuff and bewildered as to why his political heir won't come to him for the advice he is itching to give - advice that the President feels the candidate needs, according to two friends who have discussed this with Mr Clinton recently," the report went on.
As it happened the two men met in public for the first time in months the next day at the funeral of Governor Mel Carnahan of Missouri, who was killed in a plane crash. It was a brief airport encounter and seemed to confirm the coolness between the two men.
Until the Middle East crisis, when he rushed back to Washington for a national security meeting, Gore had not been in the White House since last June. This was the man who until then had insisted on having a weekly lunch with the President.
Other newspapers seized on the "distancing of Clinton" angle. The Washington Post reported that finding the right role for Clinton has "tormented Gore's campaign because the President remains such a polarising figure".
"He is popular among party loyalists, particularly minority voters . . . On the other hand campaign polls and focus groups show that Clinton is a turn-off for many of the independent swing voters Gore also needs."
The Post also claims Clinton is hurt. "However sound the reasoning for travelling separately, Clinton confidants said the President is bewildered that Gore is not more aggressively championing the administration's record and believes that it is a political miscalculation."
The strains between Clinton and Gore go back to the day Gore launched his campaign in his native Tennessee in June of last year. In media interviews that day, Gore inevitably was asked about how the Lewinsky affair could damage his own bid for the White House through association.
Gore's strong condemnation of the President's behaviour while insisting he remained "my friend" irritated Clinton and his spokesman let that be known.
Earlier this year, when the Gore campaign seemed adrift as Bush soared in the polls, Clinton did something which infuriated Gore. He telephoned a New York Times political reporter and talked about his unhappiness with the Gore campaign. Of course it was a major scoop for the newspaper and further demoralised Gore.
It is not new in American politics that vice-presidents running for the White House have to get out from under the shadow of the man in the Oval Office. And presidents, as shrewd politicians themselves, usually understand that.
But President Clinton is seen as obsessive about his "legacy" and afraid that the history books will mainly remember him as the first President to be impeached since 1868. Getting Mr Gore into the Oval Office for the next four or eight years is an important way of perpetuating the Clinton legacy.
Al Gore does not see it quite the same way.