What has happened to Elizabeth Dole? She is the first woman to run seriously for the Presidency of the United States and less than a year ago was the top Republican candidate, but her campaign seems to be fizzling out.
Maybe this is male sexism by the media, including this reporter. Deep down do we really think a woman has a chance of becoming the next US president?
Plus the fact that she, like the other Republican contenders, is being slowly crushed by Governor George W. Bush's fund-raising juggernaut. She is speaking out on all the important issues such as the economy, education, crime and foreign policy, but the country does not seem to be listening.
Last January a poll in New Hampshire, where the first primary election will be held, showed that 31 per cent of Republicans favoured her for the nomination as against 30 per cent for George Bush. The others, like Dan Quayle, were only in single-digit figures.
But now Bush is at 45 per cent in New Hampshire and Dole has fallen to 15 per cent. Nationally, Bush leads the Republican candidates with 60 per cent while Dole trails at 11 per cent in second place. If Bush were to quit the race for some reason, Dole would be the first Republican choice, however, well ahead of males such as the war hero, Senator John McCain, and the billionaire publisher, Steve Forbes.
Many reporters have written Dole off as a serious contender, and there is a whispering campaign in rival camps that she is ready to call it a day and wait to see if Bush will pick her as his vice-presidential running mate next year. She strongly rejects this scenario and plans to have an official launch of her campaign early next month.
Money has become a huge problem for her. She could only raise $1.5 million in the third quarter while Bush raked in $19 million. Even more of a problem is that she has only $580,000 cash in hand compared with Bush's $37 million.
How can she run the all-important TV advertising campaign for the primaries early next year with that kind of money? Dan Quayle dropped out for that reason.
And she is not getting a good press. Reporters are calling her a "control freak" who is organised down to the colour of her nail polish and is over-rehearsed for apparently spontaneous walkabouts with a clip-on mike.
She is being described as "robotic", and the Doonesbury strip cartoon has ridiculed her as sticking to the script at all costs.
She is having problems with her press aides, who are jumping ship. Press conferences are sometimes cut short when awkward questions are raised. A correspondent for the New Republic has found ugly sexism among the press corps. One reporter came back to the press bus after an interview with her saying. "She looks great naked". Would a female reporter have said that about George W.?
It must be said, however, that fully clothed she looks great for 64 and that the Southern Belle charm can work when you are not exposed to it every day, like the jaded travelling press.
Supporters of Mrs Dole wish her husband, Bob, did not have to do his TV campaign promoting Viagra just when she is trying to become the first woman president. But she stands by her man and says she is proud of her husband over the Viagra campaign, which is linked to warning men against prostate cancer, saying: "He just felt this could make a difference in the quality of life for a lot of men and it ought to be shared."
Her qualifications are impressive even if she has never been elected to any public office. She has worked under presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Bush and switched from being a Democrat to a Republican along the way.
She has held two cabinet posts, Transport and Labour, and was most recently president of the American Red Cross. Four times she has interrupted her professional career to campaign for her husband when he sought the Presidency, most recently in 1996 when she ended up being more admired than him.
Now she is getting her own chance and finding the going very tough. Her appeal is clearly more to women voters than men, but she is careful not to look for votes because of her gender.
She does frequently recall, however, that from the time she entered Harvard Law School in the 1950s she has met male prejudice. "But you do your job and you don't let that affect you. Toughness is simply doing it. And you can do it with a smile."
She claims to have mellowed somewhat on the "perfectionist" trait which she attributes to her strict upbringing in South Carolina. "But there's also a point of diminishing returns. I've learned to temper my desire to do it just right."
On her Website, she supplies the answers to "Frequently Asked Questions".
Here are her favourites. Colour: yellow. TV show: Law and Order. Song: Unforgettable. Hymn: Amazing Grace. Scripture verse: Proverbs 3: 5-6. Bible story: Esther. Ice cream: vanilla Swiss almond. Movies: Chariots of Fire and City Slickers. Takeout food: Chinese. Toy as a child: the navy "Wave Doll" (her brother was in the navy in the second World War).
That's the softer side of Elizabeth Dole. But the woman once nicknamed the Steel Magnolia also wants "to beef up our military readiness", and would bar the children of illegal immigrants from free public schools. She wants a much stronger war against drugs.
On gun control, she has been more courageous than other Republican candidates in calling for tougher measures. Maybe it is too soon to write her off.
Joe Carroll can be contacted at Joewash96@aol.com