He took a day off to campaign in New Hampshire and then another two days in Iowa. There's a lot of time left for voters to change their minds before the primaries next winter and the general election in November 2000. For Gore, the problem is the mirror opposite. He appears stuck in a permanent valley. He has consistently trailed Bush in polls from the beginning of the campaign - and even well before, when pollsters were surmising they'd be the nominees.
Expectations are low.
And history has shown that being in front at this point in a campaign doesn't guarantee a win - or even the nomination. The analogy the Democrats cling to most fiercely is that of former President Bush, father of today's GOP front-runner. When he ran for reelection in 1992, he led Bill Clinton in the polls all the way up to the Democratic convention. After that, Clinton surged ahead and never looked back. Edmund Muskie, the presumed nominee in 1972, exited abruptly too.