HE wants to be Britain's next Prime Minister and this week's Conservative Party conference in Birmingham was meant to cement his claim to the keys of No 10.
But David Cameron and the Tories found themselves overshadowed by the financial earthquake rocking the world.
Collapsing banks, plunging stock markets and American politicians arguing over the rescue of capitalism saw the conference sink down the
news agenda.
It's difficult to get much attention for policy initiatives on high-speed rail links or even cracking down on benefit claimants when a global financial crisis is threatening people's jobs, homes and pensions.
Mr Cameron tried to turn adversity to advantage by appearing statesmanlike and promising to work with the Government to help the country through these troubled times.
But the conciliatory words in his "emergency statement" to conference on Tuesday came just two days after he had lambasted the Prime Minister, blaming him for the economic position and declaiming: "My message to Gordon Brown is this: you have had your boom and your reputation is now bust."
And Mr Cameron was on the attack again yesterday. His speech, rounding off the conference, was the third time he had addressed the gathering in four days.
He abandoned last year's "look, no hands" approach to speechmaking and stood soberly behind a lectern.
His message was pitched at a worried public, but he stuck to the traditional Tory mantra of small government, speaking more about cutting public spending than regulating City speculators.
He said he believed in "social responsibility, not state control".
And he attacked Labour for what he described as a "dangerous argument" that the state should take a bigger role when times were tough.
If the near-collapse of the world financial system has left governments and prime ministers looking pretty powerless, how much more peripheral do opposition politicians appear at such a time?
The Tories' opinion poll lead – which reached 20 points just a few months ago – was cut to just nine points after last week's Labour conference.
Mr Cameron could well see a bounce after Birmingham. But Gordon Brown's "no time for a novice" warning seems to have hit home.
The most recent polls show voters once again believe Mr Brown and Alistair Darling will handle the economy better than David Cameron and George Osborne.
Mr Darling's comment in an interview at the end of August, that the economic challenges were "arguably the worst they've been in 60 years", were pounced on at the time but have now proved to be all too true.
The financial crisis is tricky territory for Tories. The party has always been closely identified with business and the City. Members' natural free market instincts are against tougher regulation.
After the HBoS story broke, Mr Osborne told BBC's Newsnight that "people making lots of money out of the misery of others" was a "function of the market".
And Channel Four's Dispatches programme, tracing the Tories' big donations from hedge fund managers, will do nothing to help Mr Cameron distance himself from City slickers or shrug off the Conservatives' image as the party of the rich.
Tory leaders are well aware that whatever gains they make in England at the next election, they will make little headway north of the border.
Mr Cameron insists he will "respect" the Scottish Government, whoever is running it, and will do nothing to put the Union at risk.
In his speech yesterday he repeated the line that he does not want to be Prime Minister of England, but of the UK.
But Scotland does seem to have slipped off the Tories' agenda – not least when it came to shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers' announcement that the party would oppose a third runway for London's Heathrow airport and instead build a new high-speed rail link between London and Leeds.
There has been plenty speculation about such a link between London and Scotland, which the Tories have been happy to go along with. Did the party chiefs not notice their proposal only went as far as Leeds?
The Tories now say a high-speed link to Scotland is a "long-term" objective. But the proposed London-Birmingham-Manchester-Leeds line would take till 2027 to build. Politicians' promises of what will happen 19 years hence will inevitably be treated with some scepticism, so for the sake of not offending the Scots, the Tories might as well have included Edinburgh and Glasgow in their proposal. There's plenty of time for them to be in and out of government a couple of times between now and then.
Last year, the Tories went into their conference trailing by ten points in the opinion polls and with speculation swirling about how long David Cameron could last. But they came away from Blackpool buoyed by George Osborne's proposal to raise the threshold for inheritance tax and Mr Cameron's note-free walkabout speech.
This year the objective was to cast the Tory leader as Prime Minister in waiting, but without appearing to take anything for granted.
The polls will show how well they have achieved that, but the difficult economic climate has made it a tougher task for the Conservatives to convince the voters to take a gamble on them.
