"When you spend all your time talking about debate strategy, you didn't win any votes that day," says Rick Davis, a former top campaign aide to John McCain who is now a fellow at the Institute of Politics. "You only win votes by talking about issues that voters are actually going to make a choice on."

And now that the two candidates are neck and neck, keeping focused will matter even more.

"Our campaign has a mood of confidence this week, and we are excited at the opportunity for Governor Bush to go out and share with the American people what his vision for America is," Lisaius says.

Bush will have that opportunity in Tuesday's debate. Though his debating skills are, in the minds of most analysts, measurably weaker than Gore's, Bush has handled tough contests in the past. And his campaign was worked assiduously to make Gore seem even more Ciceronian than he actually is.

Gore's campaign is happy to oblige with the opposite.

"Despite Bush's efforts to lower expectations, we think Bush is a great debater," says Gore spokesperson Dagoberto Vega.

"The debates are going to be crucial," the pollster Crockett says. "We do expect Gore to score well, and how much that reflects in the polls will remain to be seen. You don't really know how things are taken by the average American, and sometimes its something that you just can't predict."