Democrats at the convention here were horrified yesterday as news leaked out of a new Grand Jury investigation into President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal just hours before Vice President Al Gore was to make his all-important convention address.
In his speech, Mr Gore told delegates: "I've taken on the powerful forces and as President I'll stand up to them and I'll stand up for you."
But the leak could not have come at a worse time for Mr Gore, who has been trying to distance himself from the sleaze aspect of the Clinton presidency. The huge media presence immediately swooped on the leak, which was angrily denounced by the Gore campaign and the White House.
"The timing of this stinks to high heaven," a White House spokesman commented.
The office of the Independent Counsel, Mr Robert Ray, who convened the new grand jury on July 11th, refused to comment on the leak, as Grand Jury business is secret.
Mr Ray, who replaced Mr Ken Starr, had said last March that he was investigating whether crimes had been committed by the President, but any indictment would not be made until he had left office.
It is the timing of the leak of the new Grand Jury that has infuriated Democrats.
Mr Bush's spokesperson said it was "inappropriate for this type of announcement to be made on the day the Vice-President is going to accept the Democratic nomination".
In his address to the convention, Mr Gore pledged a "better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build together".
According to extracts released before he spoke early this morning Irish time, he said: "We are entering a new time. We're electing a new President and I stand here tonight as my own man and I want you to know me for who I truly am."
Mr Gore promised "a full range of targeted tax cuts for working families". He added: "I will not go along with a huge tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of everyone else and wreck our good economy in the process."
Democrats were watching anxiously to see if Mr Gore's acceptance speech would launch him on the path to victory in November's election.
The speech is seen as the most important in Mr Gore's career. He badly needs a boost from the convention to start eroding the lead held in most opinion polls by his Republican rival, Governor George W. Bush.
Now that President Clinton is taking a back seat in the election, there is mounting concern among Democrats that Mr Gore will not have the same appeal as he did to the independent voters and those in the suburbs, who now tend to decide elections.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California summed up the feelings of many party members when she said yesterday: "He has to deliver the speech of his life. He has to take the legacy that he's been given in terms of the last eight years and really chart its future."
Mr Gore, who had been working on his speech for the past three weeks, had promised it would be much more "specific" than the address by his rival, Governor Bush, to the Republican convention.
He intended to set out clearly the differences between the two parties. He planned to spell out his approach to improving healthcare, social security and education.
"There are some big choices which have to be made and I'm looking forward to addressing the nation," Mr Gore said as he arrived here.
But just as important as the policies which Mr Gore planned to put forward to the 4,500 delegates and to the country in his televised address are the efforts being made to portray a more human and appealing side to the Vice-President than the stiff and wooden image he often portrays.
His wife, Tipper, daughter Karenna and friends testified to the "real Al Gore" that they know. Mr Gore made a surprise appearance on the convention podium on Wednesday night to embrace his daughter after she had eulogised him as "a man of faith in the most gutsy, practical sense".
Mr Gore's former room-mate in Harvard, film actor Tommy Lee Jones, told the convention: "I lived with him for four years. We shot pool and watched Star Trek when maybe we should have been studying for exams. He'd challenge me to shooting contests . . . Al's the closest thing I've had to a brother."
Others who spoke up for the real Gore included a mountaineer who acted as his guide and a friend who served with him in Vietnam. Another friend from his hometown of Carthage in Tennessee told of escapades of "skinny-dipping" and throwing coke bottles at road signs.