Enda and Pat try to smile through it all

IT felt like the day the music died for Enda and Pat.

Less than 24 hours after Mr Kenny had stood on the same spot on St Stephen’s Green with his own samba band serenading his dance to power, he was back with a crushing reality check courtesy of the last opinion poll of the campaign.

It was the final time the couple would parade their political marriage of convenience in public before Thursday’s showdown and the strains were beginning to show.

The Fine Gael leader and Pat Rabbitte both had election transfers on their minds.

Mr Rabbitte was urging his supporters to give their second preference votes to Fine Gael candidates, while Mr Kenny was worried Labour TDs would give their first preference votes to Bertie Ahern for Taoiseach when the Dáil returns.

The prospect was also clearly exercising Mr Rabbitte as well as he moved to shut down Vincent Browne before his outlandish claims of a Labour wobble added further to Mr Kenny’s discomfort.

Media handlers had tried to wrap up the alfresco press conference when they saw a disgruntled-looking Mr Browne shamble over from the shadows of the Shelbourne Hotel.

Mr Browne and Mr Rabbitte, — the one time big beasts of the left, now made soft, almost cuddly by the passing of the years and the roll-over to the centre — locked horns again over whether the Labour leader really thought “no means no” when it’s in connection with keeping Mr Ahern in power.

“I am not evading!” Mr Rabbitte declared, for once actually not sounding evasive on the issue.

“Vincent! You are not arguing with Bertie now!” he insisted as he left the veteran journalist in his wake.

The temper temperature had certainly been turned up by Fianna Fáil’s apparent surge in the polls, not that the rattier half of the Rainbow duo believed a word of it of course.

No one could seem to give a reason for the extraordinary set of figures, though privately a combination of Mr Kenny’s startling lack of preparation for the debate, Tony Blair’s Westminster digout and Michael McDowell’s “leftwing government no thanks” attacks seemed to be getting the credit.

However, if the Tánaiste really believes this country is in any danger of electing a left-wing government he clearly has never seen Labour’s manifesto.

Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte bid each other a brisk goodbye as they embarked on the final 72 hours of campaigning, which would end with both, neither, or perhaps just one, ending up in power.