Whoever the genius was in the George W. Bush campaign who scheduled visits into New Hampshire last weekend from the governor's father and mother should be sent to bed without supper. Those two lovely people could do little, once the fund raisers were held and the money in the bank, to lift their son's effort in appealing to undecided voters. Their presence underscored their son's status as a scion of privilege, one who has achieved much, though by no means all, by virtue of his name. And the former president's tin ear, which did so much to lose him the White House eight years ago, was on display when he told Granite Staters, "This boy of ours will never let you down." This boy?

Believing that all candidates must paddle their own canoes, the value of endorsements in the political game has always struck me as minimal. Surely we see in New Hampshire's results the futility of piling up one such endorsement after another. How much did it help GWB to have former foes Dan Quayle, Lamar Alexander and Elizabeth Dole campaigning for him up and down New Hampshire? Apparently not much. Endorsements mostly produce lots of buzz among the chattering class of media and political insiders. The weekend before he got trounced in New Hampshire, Bush's television ad was a relatively limp endorsement ad featuring New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg. The senator was joined by former Gov. (and Bush White House chief of staff) John Sununu and countless others in endorsing Bush.

With the Feb. 18 South Carolina primary looming as a real dog fight, we will now get a chance to see what GWB is made of. I have friends in the political world, cynical and jaded veterans of many contests across America, who say that this underestimated leader was, in his 1994 upset of Texas Gov. Ann Richards, quite simply the finest and most naturally effective candidate they had ever seen at any level. On a personal level GWB is tremendously charming and engaging as good a personal, "retail" campaigner as you will ever see. Still, we didn't really find out what he was made of during that 94 campaign, when he and other GOPers rode a Republican tidal wave so awesome that the only Democrats left in the Dallas County courthouse were the ones who didn't have to run that year. And his winning manner aside, we didn't find out what he was made of all last summer and fall, when it seemed nearly every Republican in sight was falling all over themselves to give him money.

It is only now, in this moment of supreme challenge and adversity, that we will find what it is that George W. Bush is made of. The Texas governor can yet meet that formidable challenge and sweep from victory to victory. But what we know now that we didn't know Super Bowl Sunday is that if that victory is to come, it will be hard won, and that he will have to go out and earn it, and that no amount padding by endorsements will do it for him. One gets the distinct impression in many of Bush's recent performances of a tentative, overprogrammed candidate, whose handlers are advising him to play not to lose. Time, instead, to let 'er rip.

And this writer, who believes Arizona Sen. John McCain is simply mistaken on issues from tobacco to tax cuts, must admire him and his handlers for running an absolutely brilliant campaign. For now it is enough to salute a McCain who is wrong on the issues and observe that he has once again proven that, "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. ..."

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.