IT IS the image, not the issue, which is important in this election. That makes the creators of the image - the handlers and the spin doctors - crucial.
They are the guardians of the image and ensure their leaders do not commit the gaffes for which the media are praying to liven up the campaign.
The spin doctors talk to journalists off the record, suggest the spin on a development, point out the best soundbite in a speech, putting the journalists right or even manipulating. They also protect their leaders.
Political journalists have complained the leaders have been protected from questioning that might be hostile, or from getting into areas the handlers are afraid would damage their image. When one journalist asked a spin doctor why a party leader would not comment on remarks made by another, the answer was, "Because I will tell him not to".
It is only in the last few days that the Taoiseach has become available for questioning.
The image constructed for the leader of the opposition, Mr Bertie Ahern, has pushed his personal ratings up. It was created with outdoor advertising, showing a brooding Mr Ahern, a man with gravitas, a potential leader.
Fianna Fail is spending about £300,000 on posters. Posters are about feelings, rather than policy. It is emotional rather than intellectual.
The other side of Mr Ahern's image shows him on the stump, pressing the flesh. He does not talk to the press much. He is appealing to the camera. He appears on the TV every night in a crowd of supportive people.
Mr Ahern will give a soundbite on some development. On the day Mr Spring said a vote for Sinn Fein was a vote for peace, Mr Ahern had a response for the news headlines within an hour. It had been prepared in the party's media centre in Dublin and faxed to Mr Ahern on the road.
Spending on press advertising by all parties is down. Mr Kevin McSharry, the managing director of Advertising Statistics Ireland (ASI), says the trend in advertising spending in national newspapers is a total reversal of the 1992 election.
This is partly because press advertising competes with editorial.
So far Fine Gael has spent 62 per cent of the total, with Fianna Fail only 28 per cent. In 1992 a total of £383,000 was spent on national newspapers by all the political parties. Fianna Fail has already spent nearly that much on outdoor poster advertisements.
Fine Gael has spent more than £152,000 on national press advertising, such as its "lethal cocktail" advertisement showing a lighted PD match and a can of Fianna Fail petrol.
The strategy of both the Government parties and Fianna Fail/PD is to go after the minor parties.
The Government side is going after the PDs. According to Tom Butler, the Labour Party press officer, the Government side scored "hits" with the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, on single mothers and jobs in the public sector. Taxation, he suggests, was a draw.
As for Fianna Fail, Labour is an obvious target. There are those who will never forgive it for walking out of the Fianna Fail/Labour government.
In the world of the party strategist, however, such concerns are secondary to the mathematical possibility of taking seats.
It is logical for Fianna Fail to target Labour, according to one party source. Several of its seats, especially in Dublin, are vulnerable and if lost will go to Fianna Fail.
Part of the strategy is that while few Fine Gael voters will ever turn to Fianna Fail, putting a question mark against Labour might convince some not to transfer to Mr Spring's party.
The logic of the assault on the PDs is equally inescapable for the Government. The PD/Fianna Fail government fell. The partnership is seen as unstable and the PDs can be portrayed as uncaring.
The Rainbow message is stability. Who will lead the State the stable three-party outgoing Government or the lethal cocktail of the PDs and Fianna Fail?
For Fianna Fail it is all about trust. Mr Ahern meeting the people, the serious man on the posters, the "young man for a young Ireland", or the man who "puts people before politics" is designed to instil trust.
This is a radio and television election. The Taoiseach's handlers ensure that at about 4.30 p.m. he is at some beauty spot to be filmed by RTE for the 6.01 news.
The Government press secretary, Mr Shane Kenny, all but directs this piece of footage. He does not allow Mr Bruton to be filmed from below or for microphones to be in shot.
The Taoiseach says something bland against a nice background and it leads the news.
Spin doctors understand what the media want. They go through each other's material updating stories for journalists.
Everyone will run the Taoiseach's speech, for instance, so why not run Mr Ahern's reaction to it? The rebuttal becomes the story even before the original announcement is made.
Labour had its angle ready on Mary Harney's speech concerning single parents within an hour of her making the speech, as it did with her comments on jobs in the public service.
But where are the voters? The journalists chase the politicians and complain about being manipulated or being out-manoeuvred. The politicians speak in sound bites to journalists.
The voters are practically mute. They have been replaced by focus groups and are just props to make the politician look good on television.
Despite the complaints, the journalists rely heavily on the spin doctors. The last word goes to freelance journalist, Sam Smyth.
"Spin doctors are like good head waiters. If you like and trust them you are prepared to take their advice. A bad spin doctor, like a bad waiter, will try to flog you yesterday's stale item."