Forbes has probably benefited from his markedly improved delivery on the stump. Though his speaking is still somewhat stiff, it is much better than just a few months ago -- which is only to say that he finally seems like an actual carbon-based life form.

But even his stiffness is a distinction that could serve to distinguish him from the ranks of his GOP opponents. Voters may find something quirkily engaging in an old-school way about the oddball gazillionaire.

Saturday's convention attendees certainly did, giving him a standing ovation and chanting "Go, Steve, Go! Go, Steve, Go!" It provided quite a contrast to their modest reaction to Elizabeth Dole, for instance -- not to mention the disdain many attendees voiced about the no-show by Pat Buchanan.

Forbes still has to cope with media cynicism about the timing of his "conversion" from relative moderation to religious conservatism -- and about some Christian leaders' embrace of this former moderate turned deep-pocketed Christian standard bearer. But at the convention, Forbes continued to cement his standing as a contender whose strength isn't entirely located in his $450 million fortune. On the stump, he came across as a man of conservative conviction -- especially compared with Bush, whom many conservatives eye warily.

Forbes supporters insist that their man was always a devout conservative, and that he stuck to his one-issue "flat tax" mantra during his '96 campaign because "he could only break through the noise by getting behind one issue," according to Forbes spokesman Keith Appell. But a powerful profile by John B. Judis in July's GQ reflected media skepticism that the free-marketeer gives a good goddamn about religion.

Judis wrote that he was "convinced that at bottom [Forbes] doesn't share the religious right's conviction that abortion is outright murder and that he is simply currying its favor to win votes in the upcoming primaries and caucuses."

The truth, one Forbes insider says, is somewhat more layered.

"I don't think he's had a change in heart on the issues, I just think he's had a change in priorities," says the Forbes insider. "He was always pro-life, but now he's out saying he'd protect life first and foremost, even before the flat tax, and that is definitely a change in priorities. Sure, there's an element of pandering in that. But in '96 Steve underestimated conservative voters in Iowa and South Carolina and their commitment to pro-life issues."

The Forbes insider points out that Forbes' public coming-out party on his new attitude was at the Christian Coalition's convention in '97. "In September 1997, he gave a wonderful speech about how important it was to protect life," the insider says, "and he got seven standing ovations." (Interestingly, current Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson wrote that '97 speech for Forbes.)

So it's not that Forbes is betraying any fundamental belief, the insider says; it's just that he's adjusting the importance he previously assigned his pro-life stance. "I'm pro-life," the insider says. "I would never have worked for him in '96 if he hadn't been."

Out in the hinterlands of the GOP primaries and caucuses, Forbes has assiduously been courting members of the religious right -- not only by articulating unequivocal stances on their issues, but also through his organization. In Iowa, for instance, the Forbes campaign's two "organizational specialists" are Nancy Streck, an established pro-life activist, and Steve Scheffler, the former executive director of the Iowa Christian Coalition.

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