then. That says a lot about the status of the Gore campaign: Its chairman was preparing to leave just as the fall campaign began in earnest.

Confirming the teetering condition of Mr. Gore's campaign the day after he announced Mr. Daley's arrival, the Los Angeles Times released its latest poll, which revealed Mr. Bush's national lead has expanded to 10 points, 50 percent to 40 percent. Beyond delivering the crucial votes from the graveyards throughout Chicago's precincts as his father, then-Mayor Richard Daley, had done for Jack Kennedy 40 years ago and as his brother, Richard, Chicago's current mayor, could be counted on providing in any event it remains to be seen whether Mr. Daley can reassemble the other segments of the fragmenting Democratic coalition. According to the Timesstates of Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where the union vote is most concentrated. Teamsters and auto workers, who comprise 60 percent of the union vote in Michigan, have refused to endorse Mr. Gore and have even threatened to support Ralph Nader of the Green Party.

Mr. Daley's arrival surely won't help mollify labor's dissatisfaction with Mr. Gore. Indeed, Big Labor despises Mr. Daley, who shepherded the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress in 1993 and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China through the House last month. Even before Mr. Gore recruited him to chair his campaign, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, upset with Mr. Gore's support for the China deal, said "our guys" could "decide to stay home" in November. Despite the AFL-CIO's enthusiastic endorsement of the vice president