There is always danger inherent in taking a flagging campaign into a church on the Sunday before voters go to the polls.

On one hand, if you are Joe Lieberman and you have planned it in advance, you are likely to encounter a minister who will encourage his flock to vote for you.

On the other hand, the minister might also journey into the dangerous land of metaphor.

Bishop Michael Stensmore, pastor of the Community Tabernacle in Stamford, dabbled in a little of both as Lieberman sat in the front row at Sunday's morning service.

"No matter where you find yourself at, you can celebrate," he preached. "You can celebrate being between a rock and a hard place."

Reporters do occasionally try to resist the easy metaphor in situations like these, but not often. And Lieberman, who is struggling through the last 48 hours of the toughest reelection campaign of his life, seemed happy enough today to embrace the underdog's mantle.

"I don't know about you, but I don't believe this was an accident," Lieberman said of Bishop Stensmore's words, after the pastor handed him the microphone. "I'm in a struggle, a battle. So to walk in this door, and have everyone led by the bishop saying it's gonna happen... it will happen. And it will happen Tuesday."

What has to happen Tuesday is for Lieberman to confound skeptical friends, angry enemies, disillusioned Democrats and pessimistic polls, by ruining the emerging storyline that casts challenger Ned Lamont as a political Cinderella, and Lieberman as the has-been stepmother.

Lieberman travels the highways in a big green motorcoach emblazoned with the slogan: "Joe's Tomorrow Tour." On the back, another sign reads "Honk for Joe." For whatever reason, we never heard anyone honk. But maybe that's a metaphor we should resist.

Today was the day Lieberman, by his own description, planned to make his last big rhetorical stand. "This is my closing argument to the people of Connecticut."

The argument he says he wants to make? That he is not George W. Bush's best pal. That he is a real Democrat. And that he can still win on Tuesday -- no matter what you read in the papers.

To help make this point, Senator Lieberman traveled the state with other elected officials who took turns explaining to anyone who would listen why Lieberman is a good guy -- even when they disagree with him.

It's the part about disagreeing that made this such an awkward day. For instance, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents the District of Columbia in Congress, thought it was important to say -- twice -- that Lieberman has been wrong on the very thing that seems to most annoy voters -- his support for the war in Iraq.

"On this war, he and I don't agree," Norton told one church audience as Lieberman stood stiffly a few feet away. "He's wrong on that. But half the Democrats in the House and Senate agree with him. I'm not going to read him out of the party."

It's a tricky sell, and Lieberman seems particularly unhappy about being forced on the defensive during the waning days of this campaign.

That's why we all spent the evening at a community center in East Haven (our NewsHour rental van criscrossed the state at such a pace that we filled the gas tank three times in three days), watching Senator Lieberman attempt to break through one more time to any undecided voters.

He campaigned, not by accident, with former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, who has become a cause celebre among Democratic loyalists who believe he lost his own reelection campaign because Republicans painted the triple amputee as soft on terror.

"Think long and hard about your choice Tuesday," said Cleland, who has made regular campaign appearances around the country this year on behalf of veterans running for Congress. "Don't throw out the baby with the bath water."

Lieberman said today he believes he is being tarred as Cleland was. But what makes his claim different is that -- if it's true -- the attackers are members of his own party.

Reporters who have covered a lot of campaigns have come to recognize the signs of an election effort struggling to keep the wheels on. So it was not so hard to compile a checklist for the Lieberman effort.

Are the campaign staffers openly bickering among themselves? Check.

Is the candidate himself pigeonholing reporters and others to complain about coverage? (See: Bob "Stop lying about my record" Dole)? Check.

Do the people expected to be the candidate's natural supporters go missing at critical moments? Check.

On the list point, it's worth noting that the only current member of the Senate who campaigned with Lieberman this weekend was Connecticut's senior Senator Chris Dodd. And when Lieberman appeared with Eleanor Holmes Norton and newly elected Newark Mayor Cory Booker today, the only one who truly moved the crowd was Booker.

So does this mean Tuesday will be a tough day for Lieberman? Perhaps. But if I learned anything from covering his first campaign 18 years ago, it is that predictions are a bad business.

But then again, so, sometimes, is politics.

(NewsHour political coverage is a collaborative exercise...in this case including producer Mary Jo Brooks, cameraman Jim Van Vranken, and soundman Steve Lederer. Just don't ask the songs we sang on the road...)

-- By Gwen Ifill for the Online NewsHour