The public didn't bite on promises of tax cuts, on calls for smaller government or on abstract references to the President's problems with Whitewater. But has the Democrats' Jakarta Connection finally handed the Bob Dole election campaign something the voters can get their teeth into? The details of financial largesse from associates of the giant Lippo group, and of President Bill Clinton's long-standing connections to the wealthy Riady family, have been suddenly transformed from a forgotten issue into the number one Washington story of the week.
Depending on what side of the aisle one stands, the revelations are either a scandal on a par with Watergate, or - as presidential spokesman Mike McCurry would have it - 'desperation politics' from a Republican Party grasping for straws through which to breathe some oxygen into a floundering Dole campaign.
What is indisputable is that Mr Dole's advisers had been urging their boss for some time to take off the gloves and pound the administration on the ethics issue; and that the Indonesian cash issue came along, coincidentally, to provide the perfect soundbite.
This morning, the man from Russell, Kansas is almost certain to bring the Lippo question to the nation's attention via the medium of the final presidential debate. The president's team has said he is ready to answer all charges, and one can be sure he will have a carefully-scripted response honed during 48 hours of debate rehearsal.
What remains to be seen is the effect the latest Republican sortie will have on the polls. If Mr Dole believes the matter will propel him into the White House, he is even more out of touch with voters than Democrats would have us believe. And for that, he and his party colleagues must take a share of the blame.
So far, Republicans have only hinted at possible abuse of campaign finance law in the hefty donations given to the Democrats and the Clinton campaign by various figures associated with Lippo. James Riady, son of the company's chief executive, got to know then-governor Clinton in the 1980s when he ran Lippo's presence in Little Rock, Arkansas, the Worthen Bank. The bank came under regulatory criticism for its lax lending standards, after which Mr Riady ran his family's California-based Lippo Bank - which also had to revamp its practices after unwanted attention from regulatory authorities.
