Source: International Herald Tribune -- Read Full Story

The super-white teeth and the endless clowning remain, as when he clutched his chest as if dying after eating buffalo mozzarella, now the focus of a dioxin scare. But gone are many other trademarks of Silvio Berlusconi. In the heat of the campaign for parliamentary elections Sunday, the comic-book energy has succumbed to self-acknowledged fatigue. Loose-tongued in the best of times, Berlusconi, 71, now says "anything that comes into his head," one commentator wrote, citing his proposal for mental health screening for prosecutors who apparently were unhinged enough to charge him with corruption. Mostly, though, what is gone are the big promises: Italy, he seems to be saying, is so ill that not even the mighty Berlusconi can be sure of curing it. "The cross I will have to bear has never been so heavy because never has the situation before us been so difficult," he said last week. The cross in question being the office of prime minister, which he is seeking for the third time in elections on Sunday and Monday. The man who once said his leadership would herald "a new Italian miracle" now says: "We can't promise and can't achieve miracles."