Gordon Brown, focused and fixed, patrols the line at the morning press conferences. Tony Blair, seemingly more voter friendly, makes a quasi-regal progress around the electoral battlegrounds. If the results two weeks today are in line with the numbers in the latest polls, then it will be hard to fault the Labour strategy. Yet it is hard not to sense the Labour strategy's vulnerability too. There is a tension in Labour's camp which is at odds with the apparently comfortable drive towards re-election.
Senior leaders are frequently more fearful than confident.
Labour spends more time worrying about its opponents' attacks than in taking the attack to its opponents. Europe, which appears poised to be the issue of the next few days, is a case in point. Instead of making a positive case for Europe, Labour prefers to attack the Tories for their negativism. Overall, Labour still appears to be more focused on not losing than it is on winning. The Rose Garden mentality has a corrosive effect on other aspects of Labour's campaign too.