The Rev Ian Paisley is in vigorous and vibrant form these days. He is 75 but visibly thrives on elections, you can see it in his body language. But is the party he has led for nearly 30 years still vehemently opposed to the Belfast Agreement? Is that a straw blowing in the wind?
He hosted a press conference in party headquarters in east Belfast yesterday. In pinstripe suit he looked hale and hearty. Love him or loathe him, the man is still a unique phenomenon, a political force like no other on these islands.
Dr Paisley, with his usual swagger, was telling us the DUP is intent on sabotaging any plans the British and Irish governments have for keeping the crucial post-election talks a tight pro-agreement affair.
"We'll be at the negotiations, too," he thundered. But, as usual, any DUP engagement in the talks would be semi-detached. Dr Paisley and his colleagues would deal with the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party, but would have no truck with Sinn Fein, he said.
There was something distinctly curious about the DUP press conference. One must be cautious, but there appeared to be a softening of approach just in terms of simple factors like language and mood.
Now this could be purely tactical. But it could also be the DUP sensing and tapping into a general moderating of unionist attitudes to devolution, and the agreement generally. Last night the DUP security spokesman Mr Gregory Campbell appeared on a recorded UTV programme with Mr Pat Doherty of Sinn Fein. He stoutly defended his appearance yesterday, insisting, albeit with some difficulty, that it did not mark a change in the DUP's policy of not dealing directly with Sinn Fein.
In 1994 when Mr Ken Maginnis went head to head with Mr Gerry Adams in the US on CNN's Larry King Live Show it marked a watershed in how Ulster Unionists engaged with Sinn Fein. The DUP was pooh-poohing all the fuss about Mr Campbell, but last night might have been another quiet yet significant watershed in how politics is played here.
Furthermore, the DUP has been careful to temper the Rev William McCrea's profile in South Antrim. Mr McCrea appeared on a platform with LVF leader Billy Wright in the past, but there is little of that hardline exhibitionism this time. "We are making the point that Willie doesn't have horns," said Mr Robinson. And he believes it will work in seeing off the challenge from the UUP's Mr David Burnside.
Dr Paisley outlined seven principles on which the DUP would enter negotiations. These can be summed up as the DUP supporting devolution; opposing Sinn Fein in government in the absence of decommissioning; and being supportive of the "police", "genuine equality" and an "accountable" relationship with the Republic.
The language here is worth examining. "Any relationship whatsoever with the Republic of Ireland should be fully accountable to the Assembly," said Dr Paisley quoting principle five, when on another day one would expect him to declare, "The DUP will smash the North-Southery of the Belfast Agreement."
Principle six refers to restoring the "morale and effectiveness of the police force" when it could have been a demand for the "RUC" to be fully restored to its former status.
Deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson has also been talking about "recasting" the agreement, as opposed to burying it. He said yesterday he wanted an agreement that would be broadly acceptable to nationalists as well as unionists.
Now, according to Mr Robinson, that has been his policy of recent years, but again to hear him say it in such reasonable, dispassionate terms was what struck home.
At its most pragmatic what the DUP was about may have been appealing to the floating voters - what Mr David Trimble yesterday called the "thinking voter" - already secure in the knowledge that it has the staunch No vote.
Perhaps Mr Robinson, the man leading the DUP's strategic campaign, was easing his delivery in order to appeal to that vital "floating electorate". It would seem to indicate that the DUP detects a general public satisfaction with the current political landscape, and that the party must temper its presentation accordingly.
In other words, "There goes (part of) my constituency, I must follow".
The British and Irish governments are observing all this with some bemusement. "I would have thought the talks would involve those who want to make the agreement work rather than on those who want a new agreement," said one source. He added however that no doors were being closed.
Perhaps it is just mischief-making and cynical DUP politics, and perhaps too much is being read into what could be an illusory sea-change in the party's policy on the agreement. But if this is the DUP tentatively coming into the general political loop then yesterday's business should not be dismissed.
