The mild-mannered Senator Joseph Lieberman from Connecticut is making American political history as the first Orthodox Jew on a presidential ticket. It is a daring move by Al Gore just days before the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles next week where he hopes to close the gap with George W. Bush, now clearly the front runner.

Last week the news was all about how Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney from Wyoming, were winning over independent voters during the hoopla of the Republican Convention in Philadelphia, while Gore on his holiday island was still searching for a running mate.

Incidentally, former senator George Mitchell - favoured by President Clinton - was said to be on the final list of six but he told a news agency he withdrew his name on July 1st because his wife is expecting their second child. Other reports say he "never made it to the shortlist, at least in part because of his work for the tobacco-lobbying industry".

Now the media focus has switched to Gore's choice of Lieberman, how it has strengthened the Democratic ticket and broken an American taboo in one dramatic move. A tracking poll that had Bush ahead by 19 points as he came out of Philadelphia is now showing Gore as only two points behind, following the selection of Lieberman, but it should be treated with caution until the less "instant" results come in.

The small Jewish vote, only 2 per cent, in presidential elections usually goes to the Democrats anyhow so Gore, while getting credit for breaking a centuries-old barrier, was clearly more influenced by how Lieberman can immunise him from the fallout from President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Republicans have been using the code words "restoring integrity to the Oval Office" to associate Gore with a President who brought disrepute to his office and had to endure an impeachment trial for perjury.

For the past year Gore has been trying to campaign on the economic record of the Clinton years while distancing himself from Clinton. Incidentally, Hillary Clinton campaigns for a New York Senate seat just as "Hillary".

By choosing as his running mate the man who was the first Democratic senator to denounce Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky, Gore hopes he has stymied the Republicans on the "integrity" issue and left him free to concentrate on a Clinton-less future. In 50 minutes when Gore introduced his running mate in Nashville, Clinton's name was never mentioned.

The Jewishness of Lieberman, who is less liberal than Gore on a number of issues, will be a bonus. It may swing that minority of Jews who vote Republican to vote for the Gore-Lieberman ticket. A possible downside is that latent anti-Semitism may emerge among some voters whipped up by extremist right-wing groups. An example is the reaction of Matt Hale, director of the "World Church of the Creator".

Asserting that "the Jews have dominated the political landscape in Washington DC for decades", Hale says "now this new cognisance of Jewish political power will enable we anti-Semites to demonstrate the stranglehold on the system that the Jews have".

Some Jewish organisations have indeed expressed fears that the choice of an Orthodox Jew like Lieberman, who observes the strict rules about the Sabbath and attends his synagogue, will attract the attention of the hate groups.

Non-orthodox Jews of the Reform tradition or those who have become secularised have been appointed to high office such as the Supreme Court. Henry Kissinger served as Secretary of State while his boss, Richard Nixon, denounced Jewish opponents in the privacy of the Oval Office, as recent tapes have revealed.

The well-known Jewish political journalist, Norman Podhoretz, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal wrote that "being Jewish in America ceased being a serious disability nearly a century ago". Yet he concedes that it was different in some sectors of American society until recently. "Paradoxically, there was a time when it was easier for a Jew to get elected to the Senate than to get into certain private clubs or resorts or law firms or an entire profession like engineering."

The Briscoe family in Ireland may have had a similar experience in the 1940s and 1950s.

Mr Lieberman is not the first ethnic Jew to be on a presidential ticket. The grandfather of Barry Goldwater, the Republican candidate in 1964, was a a Polish Jew called Michael Goldwasser.

When Barry Goldwater was told by golf club officials "No Jews allowed", he would say: "I'm only half Jewish. Can I play nine holes?"

Mr Podhoretz, who is politically opposed to Mr Gore, pays him tribute that he has now "opened a new chapter in the story of the Jews in America". To the "ominous" question, "Will Mr Lieberman's candidacy reveal that the anti-Semitism still lurking in the fever swamps and the gutters of American life is actually more pervasive than it seems to be?", Podhoretz answers that he is convinced the answer is no.

He cites the quip by a fellow Jewish commentator, Irving Kristol, that "Christians are now more interested in marrying Jews than persecuting them" (not to mention the fervent support of Israel in conservative Christian circles).

The liberal New York Times is pleased with the choice of Mr Lieberman but a little concerned that he is putting his Jewish faith too much on display. He mentioned God 13 times in 90 seconds in his Nashville speech. "Mr Gore and Mr Lieberman must be careful not to let their campaign take on a theocratic tone reminiscent of the Republican alliance with the religious right," the paper says in its editorial, entitled "Revival Time in Nashville".

This election is going to be even more interesting than we thought.