The most formidable enemy British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces in the election is neither Conservative leader Michael Howard nor Liberal-Democrat leader Charles Kennedy. All the opinion polls agree that the majority still regard him as the superior candidate for the job of prime minister. The toughest opponent that Blair is running against is himself. He has to overcome all the other Blairs who are disliked, often intensely loathed, by those voters who have had enough.
He is up against "Greyer" Blair, the man who bears all the accumulated and inevitable scars and mistakes, discontents and disillusionments of eight years in office. He is running against "Warrior" Blair, the man who some will never forgive for the Iraq conflict, the great argument reignited again by the furore over the attorney general's advice about the legality of the war.
And he has to overcome the "Liar" Blair that the Conservatives are promoting in the final frantic burst of campaigning before polling day.
He tries shrugging at that: "I always think when people resort to personal abuse, it's because they've lost the argument." Then he suggests contempt for Michael Howard. "I don't care about his campaign -- other than that it doesn't succeed."
But for a man who doesn't care, he returns rather often to this subject and whether it is hurting. He doesn't sound entirely sure that he knows.
Backdoor approach
The Conservative campaign is not intended to improve Tory support, but "designed to demoralize our vote, push it off anywhere, even to the Liberal Democrats, in order to get back in by the back door."
Later in the interview, he is back on the subject. He hopes people will "see through" the Tory tactics and understand that the election is not a referendum on him but a choice between Labour and Conservative governments.
"The question is whether, nonetheless, some of the mud sticks? The honest answer is, I don't know," Blair said.
He has also come under some friendly fire. Former advisers who worked at senior levels in Downing Street have recently been gnawing over whether he has made the most of the opportunity presented to him back in the sunny days of May 1997. Geoff Mulgan, who used to be the head of the strategy unit, has written that New Labour has been too timid, and better at winning elections than it has been at transforming the UK.
What Blair will acknowledge is that he "underestimated" the challenge of reform in health and education and regrets not pressing "radical" and "fundamental" change earlier in the life of his government. "I would have liked to push that further and quicker."
How can it be acceptable that, after eight years of Labour government, thousands of children still have not got a place in secondary school for this September, a particularly acute problem in London. He contends the problem is diminishing. But he concedes -- how could he not, really? -- that this is unacceptable.
"There is a lot of improvement that needs to happen there," he says.
He shrugs off the broader critique that he has squandered his opportunity to transform the UK.
"Labour has never been in this position before. It's the longest period of consecutive government Labour has ever had," Blair says.
And this, he contends, is part of his difficulty with people who should be natural Labour supporters. "The problem with progressives is that they tend to judge their governments against perfection. It's not like that. You are going to have difficult decisions and disappointments in government."
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