NOT since the days of Mary Robinson's election and the 1992 Spring Tide has there been such a feelgood factor surrounding the Labour Party coming into its national conference.

Their performance in the polls hasn't been quite as startling as Fine Gael's but, at 14% or 15%, Labour could be confident of adding a minimum of six or seven seats in a general election.

The claim of one speaker in Kilkenny yesterday that there was a "new dawning for the left" brought to mind the party's less than prescient rallying cry of 40 years ago that "the '70s will be socialist". But there are undoubtedly grounds for optimism (if not for getting carried away). At home, Fianna Fáil is sinking like a stone in the polls and internationally, Labour has good reason to feel that, as the depths of the worst global recession in nearly a century start to hit, politics is shifting to the left.

Perhaps it's because John Maynard Keynes is back in fashion, but it's certainly a sign of the times when you hear Franklin D Roosevelt and Nobel prize economists being cited at Labour party conferences. Gilmore quoted Paul Krugman's line that "government will have to provide economic stimulus in the form of higher spending and greater aid to those in distress", before adding: "That is the very opposite to what the conservative commentators are recommending. And the opposite to what Fianna Fáil are doing".

For obvious reasons, Labour has been keen to hitch its wagon to the Barack Obama express. Eamon Gilmore even went so far as to paraphrasing Barack Obama 'as Gaeilge' in his leader's address. "Sea, Is Féidir linne freisin" mightn't literally translate as the 'Yes we can' line so beloved of Obama (or should that be O'Bama?), but it's as close as makes no difference.

Since becoming leader, Gilmore has made a point of putting clear blue water between his party and Fine Gael, even if the larger party is currently its most likely coalition partner. He was at it again yesterday.

Labour, alone among all the political parties, wants a stimulus plan for the Irish economy, Gilmore said.

The key to getting out of this economic crisis, he told delegates, is not how much the government can cut, but what it can create.

But the most obvious differentiation from Fine Gael was when Gilmore said the government couldn't make a pay agreement one week and unilaterally cancel it the next. A week ago at his party conference, Enda Kenny was calling for the pay deal to be suspended.

Rhetoric, as Obama showed, is hugely important but Labour is open to accusations that it is simply engaging in populist opposition to each and every cutback. This is fiercely rejected by senior party figures, who say their thinking is in tune with the likes of Gordon Brown, the European Commission and, of course, Obama. Perhaps, but either way, there is no doubt that there is certainly a gap in the market for the type of politics they are advocating.

Can Eamon Gilmore succeed where Ruairí Quinn and Pat Rabbitte failed and bring Labour into government for the first time since its sensational election performance of 1992? Sea, Is Féidir leis.