AFTER months in which even his fellow party members had given
him up for lost, José Serra, the runner-up in the first round of
Brazil's presidential election, now looks as if he has a slim
chance. On October 3rd the candidate of the centrist opposition
Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) got 33% of the vote,
well behind the 47% won by Dilma Rousseff of the left-wing
ruling Workers' Party (PT). The pair will face each other in a
run-off on October 31st. Although recent polls differ widely,
some say that Ms Rousseff's lead has shrunk to only five or six
points.  That gap barely exceeds the polls' margin of error. And
since Ms Rousseff fell short of forecasts that she would win an
outright majority in the first round, Serra optimists are
wondering if the pollsters are overestimating her support once
again. A race whose outcome had seemed certain since June, when
Ms Rousseff passed Mr Serra in the polls, now looks exciting.
In the two candidates' debates since October 3rd, an energised
Mr Serra has landed