Out of a clear blue sky, it seems, developments are transforming the doldrums in which US domestic politics appeared to be drifting, rudderless. Not least, the decision by Al Gore to avoid a rematch with President Bush in 2004 gives the Democratic Party time, and the chance, to create a new forward-looking alternative leadership for the country.
The timing of the announcement, however, was unfortunate for a party delighting in the embarrassment of the Republicans at their Senate leader's outrageous praise for a staunch segregationist and the resignation of Henry Kissinger from the commission of inquiry into 9/11. The shockwaves created by Senator Trent Lott's praise for the 100-year-old Strom Thurmond refuse to die down and have led to calls for his resignation from within his own party. Acutely sensitive to the reality that only 15 per cent of African-Americans supported Mr Bush in 2000, the White House must be seriously contemplating publicly joining the push.
Mr Gore's decision came as a shock to many supporters and friends, although some party officials will probably not be unhappy with it. Polls suggest he was the strongest candidate available to the Democrats, and many Democratic activists still feel he was robbed by a partisan Supreme Court of his rightful place in the White House after the marathon Florida recount. But the recognition factor may well have distorted his poll showing and many observers feel that Mr Gore's wooden performance lost him the 2000 race against what was seen as a weak Republican and believe that he remains unelectable.
His departure opens up the field and frees his former running mate, Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, to declare himself. The well-regarded former Vietnam vet, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Vermont's Governor Howard Dean, both on the party's liberal wing, have already declared, as has the civil rights activist, the Rev Al Sharpton. The party's leader in the Senate, Tom Daschle, and former House leader, Dick Gephardt, are seen as likely contenders, as is the South's dark horse, the impressive, but yet largely unknown, Senator John Edwards from North Carolina. Some even suggest, improbably, that New York's Senator Hillary Clinton may be tempted.
The real question, however, in the wake of a disastrous performance in the mid-terms, is how to articulate an alternative to a popular war leader - something no Democrat facing a serious electoral challenge has been willing even to attempt.