Being in the right place at the right time is arguably more of a factor in catapulting Ehud Olmert into the role of Israel's prime minister-designate than personal popularity.
One pre-election poll found that more Israelis would prefer to have dinner with the rival leaders of the Labour and Likud parties, Amir Peretz and Binyamin Netanyahu, than Olmert. They trusted Peretz ahead of Olmert; and they thought Netanyahu would take better care of the economy.
Yet, when asked which of the three men would make the most suitable next prime minister, most voted for the 60-year-old lawyer who was propelled into the post of acting prime minister just two months ago when his boss Ariel Sharon was felled by a massive stroke.
Olmert, a career politician and former Jerusalem mayor, surprised many initial predictions by largely preserving the momentum behind the breakaway Kadima, which the hugely admired Sharon founded just two months before he lapsed into a coma.
Capitalising on the ex-general's popularity by promising to continue his legacy, Olmert daringly based Kadima's electoral campaign on a clear promise to try to set Israel's borders by 2010, without Palestinian agreement if need be.
Sharon, with an old soldier's instinct to keep all options open, had been deliberately vague with voters about his future plans following last summer's evacuation of settlers from occupied Gaza.
But Olmert, who didn't have Sharon's charisma and formidable military reputation to fall back on, was explicit in telling voters that he intended to pull out of isolated settlement in the occupied West Bank while consolidating and annexing the main blocs. Voters may not have been bowled over by Olmert's less than radiant personality, but many clearly agreed with the policy of "convergence" - a gathering in of the Jewish nation in shrunken borders behind the huge illegal West Bank separation wall.
A lifelong keen sportsman and football fanatic, he studied law, philosophy and psychology before joining parliament in 1973, aged 28, and established a successful legal practice on the side. He has weathered allegations of corruption and moderated his once-hawkish stance during his long political career.
Olmert embraced Sharon's Gaza pull-out plan, becoming a loyal deputy prime minister and 'point' man, often floating proposals in public that later became policy.
He has five children with his wife Aliza, a respected writer, and has often joked that he is in "a minority of one" in his left-leaning Jerusalem home.