AS THE Republican presidential candidate, Mr Bob Dole, sets off from San Diego on the campaign trail with the cheers of a highly successful convention still loud in his ears, President Clinton is already planning his counterattack from a holiday ranch in Wyoming.
Following his return to the White House next Monday, the President will sign a series of Bills favouring families, launch his new book on his vision for America and prepare for the Democratic convention in Chicago, which will give him and the party valuable media coverage.
While the President has been feigning indifference to the Republican convention, his aides are noting that even before Mr Dole's acceptance speech on Thursday night, a new poll showed the gap between them closing rapidly.
The CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows President Clinton's lead over Mr Dole has been sliced in a week from 22 to 11 points in a three way race including Mr Ross Perot.
Mr Dole is also closing the "gender gap" and increasing his approval rating with women voters, perhaps because of the widely acclaimed "talk show" performance at the convention by Mrs Elizabeth Dole, in which she thrilled the audience with an emotional account of her husband's early life and long struggle with war wounds.
Mrs Hillary Clinton, it has now been confirmed, will play a major role at the Democratic convention, although it had been reported earlier that her presence would be low key.
This weekend, Mr Dole and his running mate, Mr Jack Kemp, buoyed up by the release of $62 million in federal funding, set off on a week long swing through Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Newt Gingrich, and a team of Republican Congress members and governors are campaigning intensively in California, which with 4 electoral college votes could win the election for Mr Dole, but could also spell disaster if funds are diverted there to no purpose.
President Clinton will be feted at a 50th birthday party in New York on Monday, which will also he a giant fund raiser. TV and film stars will greet him, recalling how Marilyn Monroe sang for President Kennedy's birthday party in Madison Square Garden over 30 years ago.
The White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, yesterday deplored personal attacks" at the Republican convention on the Clintons and the administration. He said the Democrats would be ignoring Mr Dole at their convention and that the President would concentrate on presenting his vision for the year 2000.
Mr McCurry said that Mr Dole's speech accusing the administration of an elitist approach showed that he might be "generationally challenged" and was showing his distance from the baby boomer generation.
The President's speech to the Chicago convention will avoid personal attacks on Mr Dole and take a loftier approach. It is being called a "state of the union" speech.
The Democratic campaign has stepped up its TV advertising against the Republicans following their convention. It attacks the Dole tax cutting plan and tries to frighten moderates by linking Mr Dole with Mr Gingrich.