Yet beside Mr Checchi, the presumed politician of the future, Mr Clinton looks almost old-fashioned.

ECONOMIST: Al Checchi, politician as product

Opinion polls show Davis running about 10 percentage points ahead of his rivals, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman and wealthy businessman Al Checchi.

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Mr Checchi's biggest problem, though, is that his political message is little more than a marketer's concoction, mixed together from opinion polls and focus groups.

ECONOMIST: Al Checchi, politician as product

So Mr Checchi has approached this election with a businessman's thoroughness.

ECONOMIST: Al Checchi, politician as product

The cynical answer is that the Northwest board includes Democratic luminaries: not just Mr Checchi, but also Richard Blum, the husband of California's Senator Dianne Feinstein.

ECONOMIST: Labour��s seeds of discontent

Gray Davis and Al Checchi could hardly be more different.

ECONOMIST: California politics

But Mr Checchi, who has been preparing for the primary for the past 18 months, seemed to go out of his way to make every mistake in the book.

ECONOMIST: A steady lot, the Californians

Mr Checchi's millions did have at least one effect: they persuaded the most formidable Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, not to run in the first place (a decision she is now said to regret in light of the result).

ECONOMIST: A steady lot, the Californians

Yet when Mr Checchi was obliged to beam down from the virtual world to the real one to attend a convention of the state's Democratic Party in Los Angeles on March 20th-22nd, he put on a dismal performance.

ECONOMIST: Al Checchi, politician as product

As for the Northwest dispute, some observers trace it not just to the 1993 agreement (in which the pilots' wage concessions were alleviated by the award of stock in the company and a seat on the board) but to dislike of the abrasive style of Al Checchi, chairman until last year, before his quixotic decision to run for governor of California.

ECONOMIST: Labour��s seeds of discontent