Britain'S Blair Wows Press, But Doubts

Blair fired up his own Labour Party and stirred commentators on both the left and right of politics with a speech deeply personal in content and almost evangelical in presentation.

Even the mass-selling Sun newspaper, which claimed to have won the last general election for the Conservatives in defiance of opinion poll forecasts, was moved to describe it as the speech of his life, headlining its report President Blair.

Party faithful applauded Blair's 10 vows for government, which ranged from cutting class sizes in schools to forging a new, constructive relationship with Europe.

Bookmakers immediately cut their odds for a Labour victory in the election, which Prime Minister John Major must call in the next seven months, after a steady stream of bets on Blair.

With polls giving Blair a lead of 20 points plus, and the government reeling from press revelations about sleaze in the Conservative Party, Blair's path to victory has never seemed more assured.

But aides, remembering a triumphalist eve-of-poll rally in 1992 before Labour's unexpected loss, warned party supporters against celebrating too soon.

Blair himself repeatedly stressed in his speech that victory had to be earned.

The heartfelt enthusiasm of the party delegates for the speech belied the central message for the electorate