IF IT wasn't for the half-life of brown-paper bags, Bertie Ahern would be entering the upcoming election with a higher comfort zone than any previous leader.
He has approached the task methodically and inclusively. Whereas in the past, leaders tended to seclude themselves with outside experts; emerging from the discussions with a policy document which was, effectively, pasted on to the spokesperson for that area, this time around Bertie Ahern told each of his spokespeople to prepare a policy document, to present that policy to the assembled front bench, and to be ready to defend it against rigorous questioning.
The end result is that the policy for each area has been pummelled and proved by the people who will own it and present it to the public.
Not only that, but people in quite different policy areas now have an understanding, which traditionally they did not, of the priorities and problems of other portfolio-holders. Fianna Fail has its own stall, its own ideas and without reference to any potential partner in Government is ready to present and defend those ideas.
The leader himself is more of an asset now than he was when he took over. Charlie McCreevy has said that Bertie Ahern's greatest strength is that "he grows on you". In common with most of McCreevy's aphorisms, this one has a complex truth in it.
Inevitably, a new leader tends to be judged by those immediately surrounding him or by comparison with his predecessors. Bertie Ahern came to the leadership following Albert Reynolds - a crisp, occasionally impatient, always time-effective manager of meetings - and Charles Haughey whose regal intolerance of time wasting ensured that frontbenchers, in their contributions at meetings, kept to the point.
Against that background, Ahern's informal style made early meetings seem ineffective. When a group has developed the expectation that a leader will listen to the key arguments, make a decision and swiftly move on, it can be flummoxed by a leader who will not only listen, but permit apparently endless expression of opinion. What he does can be dismissed as indecisiveness.
It takes time to adapt to the concept of a meeting as a process within which lurks a consensus most likely to be lured into the open if everybody expresses themselves freely and fully and at length.
The other aspect of Ahern's approach which took a great deal of time to grow on frontbenchers is this lack of a robust, punitive instinct. Members of the Parliamentary Party always want the leader to tell off other members, in particular frontbenchers. For non-performance. For inadequate performance. For a million and one fancied or real failings. Bertie Ahern absorbs all of the complaints, but only on the rarest of occasions will he rebuke a party member - and the reproach is always delivered in private.
All of which has made Bertie Ahern "grow on" members of the Parliamentary Party. His visits to each constituency have helped ensure that he has grown on party members around the country too Increasingly, he is seen as a modern and sensitive leader capable of addressing difficult and divisive issues without the personalised savagery of the past.
ANOTHER advantage he has is that participation in a coalition government is by now taken as read - whereas just a few years ago, anything less than majority government was seen as failure and no more than a temporary arrangement.
Today, the challenge is to manage the pre-nuptial differences with the PDs so that any current differences will not prevent them living happily, post-election, with Fianna Fail. One of these pre-nuptial tensions involves the State-sponsored bodies. Although the difference would not be as pronounced as the difference between Fine Gael and Democratic Left, there is, nonetheless, a groundswell of fear within many State-sponsored bodies at the uncompromisingly hard line of Michael McDowell. Fianna Fail will be looking for reassurances that this kind of thinking will not cause recurring difficulties in government.
But it is important to remember one critical point: on past evidence the PDs' ideological bark tends to be much worse than their bite.
Given Ahern's capacity to reconcile the apparently irreconcilable, even this problem can be smoothed over pre-election.
But what would do enormous damage to Fianna Fail's chances would be the revelation, mid-campaign, of the name of a party recipient of say, the now mythical £1.1 million. Even if the recipient were proven to have been out of politics and out of active involvement with Fianna Fail the announcement would erode the space which Ahern has created between his administration and the general public perception - grossly unfair in my view - of the past.
Brown paper bags filled with money are like radioactive waste: they continue to do damage generations after they first changed hands, to people who had nothing to do with pay-offs of any kind.
Fianna Fail has another complex difficulty to address: one of the peculiarities of being the largest party for such a long period of time is that the party takes unto itself all of the instinctive hostility towards "the Establishment".
As a TD on the liberal wing of the party, often advocating policies which were not immediately popular with the membership, I often noted how the general public granted me exceptional status. I wasn't a member of this Establishment. The flip side of that is where a young, idealistic politician, determined to work hard but who lacks the profile I wash granted, has to fight off the prejudices people have about big parties.
BUT, despite these inherent disadvantages, Fianna Fail - make no mistake - can still win this election. And if there is one issue on which it should win the election, that issue is peace.
Even the most vigorous critics of Albert Reynolds accept that he deserves great credit for the peace process. The nation under-valued what had been achieved, indeed, perhaps took it for granted, until the bomb at Canary Wharf a year ago. But it has since become abundantly clear that this Coalition could not keep Ireland peaceful. It has engaged in a never-ending sequence of wordy processes, but the euphoric hope of real peace died when Fianna Fail left government.
Bertie Ahern has indicated that Albert Reynolds will have a major input to the renewal of the peace process if Fianna Fail returns to power. That is one indicator of how seriously he takes the responsibility to bring real peace back to this country. If he can convince voters that a vote for Fianna Fail is a vote for peace, then there is a real chance of electoral success.