It verged on shtick, with the reporters tossing softballs to the novice candidate.

Voters have historically been suspicious of novice candidates who promise to run government like a company.

But once it was clear that he was an inept nincompoop, now they're looking to 2006 and some other novice candidate to bail them out.

Mr. Sutton, a Regency regular for decades, eats there about twice a week and still brings novice candidates along to make introductions, he said.

The endless campaign has "tested" him in ways that novice candidates such as Bush and Dole can't even imagine.

To be sure, novice candidates have a right to run, but Buckley v. Valeo creates a narrow, privileged class of novices.

Some even characterize this as the mistake of a novice candidate.

As a novice candidate, Mr. Finley has a difficult road ahead.

Several Democrats said her trouble served as a reminder that whatever strengths Mrs. Clinton brings to next year's Senate race, she is a novice candidate.

With the cost of political campaigns now so high, a familiar name may be second only to private wealth as an asset to the novice candidate.