OTTAWA - For a fleeting moment on Saturday, a blast from the past brought the Liberals' weekend love-in to a crashing halt.

Taking the microphone at a Q&A session with Cabinet, Trudeau-era minister Warren Allmand demanded to know why the government was "obstructing" the inquiry it called into the Maher Arar affair. The response from Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan (who, owing to a potential conflict of interest for Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, is overseeing the file) was predictably vague, a non-answer to a question he clearly hadn't been anticipating. But at least the exchange proved there was one Liberal who wasn't reading from the same playbook at this weekend's national convention.

He must have been lonely. To kick off the "accountability" session, a young man stepped up, proclaimed himself a Young Liberal, pumped his arms in triumph and declared that the recent federal budget had demonstrated the Liberals were all about "promises made, promises kept" (the Liberal slogan du jour) before getting to his softball question. The tone officially set, the session - like almost everything else this weekend - became little more than an exercise in self-satisfaction.

Most of the keeners who flocked here came knowing their job was to help Paul Martin deliver the message that everything is going swimmingly. So they chanted on cue during his Friday night speech, gave him a rousing welcome every time he entered a room and said all the right things - when the tape recorders were on - about the direction he's taking the country.

None of this was unexpected. But what's downright shocking about all this backslapping about kept promises and a new era in governance is that Mr. Martin and his inner circle seem to believe it.

From the outside, Mr. Martin's tenure as Liberal leader has been a disappointment. Top among his goals before he took office were a better relationship with the provinces, a restoration of Canada's international role, and an elimination of the "democratic deficit"; today, the provinces are pulling in 10 different directions, foreign relations are a mess, and his own ministers are complaining that the government is more top-down than ever. Throw in a horribly executed election campaign, an indecisive management style that Liberals will only acknowledge with grim references to "the d-word," and ... well, you get the picture.

Except, if you're in or around the Prime Minister's office, you don't. With an almost messianic view of their boss, Mr. Martin's top advisors hear nothing of the criticism. And as a result, neither does he.

Recalling the potential he showed back in his days as finance minister, the chattering classes are still waiting for him to kick it into overdrive. But the thing is, he doesn't have another gear - or at east, he's not going to find one unless he starts listening to someone lse, which isn't going to happen. So for as long as Mr. Martin is the prime minister, this is the prime minister we're going to have.

From a purely political standpoint, the Martinites actually have some reason to feel comfortable. One and all this weekend, Liberals agreed they saw no threat in Stephen Harper - which, given his performance since last year's campaign, is hard to dispute. While the absurdly backloaded federal budget was virtually meaningless as public policy, they're probably right that it'll work as a campaign document against the rudderless opposition if a vote is called this year. And the decision to not participate in ballistic missile defence will no doubt serve them well in urban ridings and Quebec.

But the fact that success for Mr. Martin is now measured in his ability to get re-elected against such amateur-hour opposition is a sign of just how dissatisfied he and his supporters should be.

His predecessor had electoral politics down pat, but the Martinites shoved him aside because they thought they thought they could do better. Now, they're living from campaign to campaign - and they've somehow convinced themselves that this is what they were fighting for.