The US Vice-President, Mr Al Gore, and his only challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, the former senator Mr Bill Bradley, have stepped up their campaigns for the vital New Hampshire primary election.
Presidential ambitions can rise or fall in this small New England state because it is the first to hold a primary in each election.
As the latest polls in New Hampshire show that Mr Bradley has drawn ahead of Mr Gore by 47 per cent to 39 per cent, the two men last night presented their views together in the small university town of Hanover. They answered questions from a selected audience of about 400 in the local arts centre and the debate was broadcast live on nation-wide CNN television.
Unfortunately for the candidates, the meeting clashed with the fourth game in the World Series baseball play-off between the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves, which had much of America tuned to another channel.
Earlier in the day, while Mr Gore jogged, Mr Bradley went walk-about for one hour in Hanover's main street. Students from the local college demonstrated loudly in favour of Mr Bradley while waiting for his arrival. The few Gore rivals soon faded away.
The tall figure of Mr Bradley, a one-time basketball star, and his wife, Ernestine, were jostled by the crush of media cameras and reporters straining to catch his words as he greeted bystanders and chatted in Lou's Diner.
Mr Gore has also received good news - from polls which were taken on a national basis and not just in New Hampshire. The Gallup poll for CNN/USA Today showed that Mr Gore in the past two weeks has doubled his lead over Mr Bradley among Democrats and it now stands at 57 per cent to 32 per cent.
This boost for Mr Gore has coincided with the recent shake-up of his campaign and the moving of his headquarters from Washington to his native Tennessee. The vice-president has also tried to adopt a more personal style while appearing less vice-presidential and less a part of the Clinton administration.
Tonight it will be the turn of the contenders for the Republican nomination to take their place before an audience in Hanover. But much of the bite in this encounter has been removed by the absence of the leading candidate, Gov George Bush of Texas, together with the withdrawal from the campaign of Ms Elizabeth Dole and Mr Dan Quayle and the defection this week to the Reform Party of Mr Pat Buchanan.