A SLIP of the tongue sums up the candidates for the US presidency for many people. Bore and Gush may be the best America can find to take the reins from Bill Clinton next year, but their respective lack of charisma has left much of the world cold and dreading power in their hands.

They've a hard act to follow. Love him or loath him, Bill Clinton has proved to be the most charismatic and controversial president for years. He has a proven economic record with eight years of unbridled prosperity under his belt. And he has shown himself to be a sensitive and effective world statesman. Questionable morals aside, Bill has charmed ordinary people and leaders around the world.

But his time has come. The American constitution, which as the gun laws show, is set in stone - even in the face of logic - does not allow a president to continue for a third term of office, no matter how good he is.

And when the few American voters who can be bothered go to the polls on Tuesday, it is likely to be the clash of the also rans.

Opinion polls throughout the campaign trail have had Al Gore and George "Dubya" Bush neck and neck. Truth is, there's little to choose between such mediocre men.

For Gore, 52, it's far too easy to read Bore with critics State-side likening him to a plank of wood in the personality stakes.

He's a man who has been on the scene eight years but so hidden in Clinton's enormous shadow he was completely eclipsed. He enjoys, then, no advantage in the public eye over any freshman.

It's something he recognises and has tried to change during his long and hard-fought campaign. But while he has tried, the results have been cringe-worthy, a fine example being when he stripped off his jacket at a party rally saying: "It may be cold here but I am really hot." The audience responded in kind by not responding at all, shocked into silence in equal measures by the crassness of the statement and the failed and aberrant attempt at humour.

But what Gore lacks in charm he makes up for in ability with encyclopaedic knowledge of government and world affairs. The problem is that the voters seem to care more about personality than policy.

Mr Gush, 54, to coin that slip of the tongue again, is just that. He spouts vitriolic soundbites every time he is within earshot of anyone who will listen. His election trail has been a knocking campaign from start to finish, quick to pull holes in the current administration and his democratic opponent but short of any alternatives, other than tax cuts the country probably can't afford.

Those same critics which brand Gore a plank, dub Dubya the dimmest lightbulb in the box. On top of that his eyes are as shifty as the past which is catching him up.

A foul-mouthed faux pas at a party conference heard him describe a journalist as an a*****e when he thought the microphone was switched off. And only yesterday he was having to counter dirt from the 1960s after revelations he had been prosecuted for drinking and driving.

The tough-talking Texan's knowledge of world affairs verges on the ridiculous - when asked to name a number of world leaders he couldn't, responding simply by throwing the question back at the inquisitor with a "Can you?"

But in a twist of fate it's home-boy Bush not international statesman Gore that could have a direct effect on life in Britain.

Bush has pledged to withdraw American troops from theatres of unrest around the world. His presidency could see an end to the US playing world policeman, no doubt to fund the tax cuts at home. But to do this and protect American soil he will have to press ahead with Star Wars II, a strategic defence initiative (SDI) which would protect the States from attack by ballistic missiles. For this nuclear shield to work, Menwith Hill listening base near Harrogate and Fylingdales early warning station on the North York Moors would have to come into play, making the region a prime target for enemy missiles should conflict arise.

Tennessee-born Gore on the other hand, while fanatical about world affairs, is much more lukewarm about SDI.

The world hangs in the balance then and will be decided by an electoral system as unfathomable as the American psyche.

Convoluted in the extreme, the system involves the enfranchised (the public) voting for electoral college representatives in each state who in turn vote for their presidential candidate. Each state is awarded electoral votes in proportion to its population. So California gets 54 votes because a lot of people live there and Alaska gets just three because not many do.

In each state the candidate who gets the most votes takes all the electoral college votes. Country-wide, there 538 college votes to be had so the candidate who gets to 270 becomes president. Theoretically it is possible to poll fewer votes than your opponent but still become president. Bush and Gore have been concentrating on the states with the most electoral college votes - California (54), New York (33) and Florida (25).

If people vote with their heads and their wallets they should plump for Gore, a man who pledges to continue the prosperity of the past eight years, to keep the world status quo, protect the environment and spend more on the poor, particularly pensioners.

But it's a society ruled by the heart, a movie-set culture where emotion rules intellect. Voters don't care about policies that will make them rich as many are comparatively rich already. Those who aren't don't care about either administration, with a huge swathe of the poorer population not even registered to vote.

So Bush this weekend inches ahead in the polls, despite policies which would plunder the Alaskan wildlife refuge for oil, cut taxes for the rich and leave the world to fend for itself.