Unsurprisingly, Bob Poe, the Democrats' state party chairman, concludes that to be competitive at all againstsuch a background is to put yourself within striking distance of victory.
Perhaps as great as the risk that Ms Rousseff will stumble in the attempt to clean up Brazil's politics is that, against a darkening world economic background, such a gradualist approach may be overtaken by events.
In the trial's second phase, jurors weighed factors such as the heinousness of the crime and its impact on the victims' families against Moussaoui's background and mental health.