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Four days after being sworn-in, Wofford illustrated his presumed ineptness at his new job. Holding a press conference at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, perpetually threatened with closings by the Pentagon and repeatedly saved by fierce and well-publicized fights from Heinz, Wofford admitted to local reporters that essentially he had no news for them. The reporters, in turn, had to pull teeth from the professorial new senator to even get him to say that oh yes, and by the way, he was opposed to the closing of the Navy Yard.

Questioned later by phone about his Navy Yard appearance, Wofford blandly replied: "We have six months to get our message across."

Into this bleak picture for Democrats arrived two out-of-state and deeply unknown political gunslingers named James Carville and Paul Begala. The two had run Casey's successful campaign for governor in 1986. Their intent with the Wofford campaign, said Begala, was "to raise money and raise hell."

They did.

Suddenly, the ground underneath the Sure Thing Thornburgh candidacy began to shift, because of one issue: health care.

Harris Wofford, the long-ago adviser to a long-ago president, the sleepy liberal college president and "egghead" intellectual, began electrifying Pennsylvania voters by zeroing in on health care with all the zeal of a born-again crusader. Scorching the Bush administration, whose leader had not long earlier been possessed of an approval rating in the rarified political air of 90% after the success of the Gulf War, Wofford vowed to "clean up the corridors of power and turn Washington upside down." Accusations of corruption were leveled, with every perceived sin of the Reagan-Bush years laid at Thornburgh's feet, specifically including a charge that the Thornburgh-led Justice Department had played favorites in a prominent fraud case of the day.

The unlikely-star of a populist campaign, Wofford barnstormed Pennsylvania in a relentless attack on Washington "corruption" and its bungling of health care. "It's time to take care of the middle class" exhorted the liberal whose career had previously been identified with the poor.

To the astonishment of Pennsylvania political observers, Thornburgh's lead in the polls, which had begun with a 40% margin over Wofford began to vanish. On October 1, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and WTAE-TV poll showed that Thornburgh's lead over Wofford had shrunk to a stunning 12%. The health care pitch, tied to the issue of corruption in Washington, was hitting home. Energized, the state AFL-CIO swamped its 1 million Pennsylvania members with a get-out-the vote campaign.