(FORTUNE Magazine) – The image remodelers face a challenge. They're trying to make a curmudgeonly mayor seem cuddly and a stiff Vice President seem like a stitch. The personality makeover might be the hardest move in politics; the last politician to accomplish it was Richard Nixon. The new Nixon--reasonable, forgiving, friendly--managed to win the White House in 1968. But the old Nixon--harsh, vindictive--never really disappeared. "Sometimes," says veteran Washington image-maker Frank Mankiewicz, "if you're an ignorant dope and try to overcome it, you end up looking like an ignorant dope."

This fall is the critical period when, like patients with new hearts or livers, the body politic is in gravest danger of rejecting personality transplants. So here is a FORTUNE guide to the transformations--politicians as works in progress. Plus a few helpful hints for the candidates.

--Rudy Giuliani. Going from mean guy to nice guy is no breeze, and Hizzoner gets points for effort, though not necessarily for results. He's trying to alter the old formula (fighting for New York City against the rest of the state) and developing a new strategy (convincing the rest of the state that nice ol' Rudy is one of them). He's working on his sense of humor, though mostly he sounds sophomoric. Our advice: Bring some people into your inner circle who don't have a clue where the A train goes. And shut up about Yankee stadium--spend a Sunday this fall watching the Buffalo Bills, the only NFL team that's actually in the state.

--Al Gore. One of the great spectator sports of the year is watching the Vice President trying to convince the public that he's not the most boring human being alive. Our advice: Play to your strength, old boy, which is that you know more about what the federal government is doing than anyone else. Ever. And it wouldn't hurt to remind the public that New Jersey voters nearly threw Bill Bradley out of the Senate because they found him to be the second-most-boring human being alive. Don't elaborate.

--Hillary Rodham Clinton. She's gone briskly from conspiracy theorist to victim to apologist. On her Vineyard vacation, she rolled out her (latest) New Look, a sleek, black pantsuit and low-heeled open-toe slingbacks, proof that the woman who has changed her haircut, hair color, and name, but not her husband, isn't about to stop changing. Our advice: Forget about your relationship with your husband and figure out what your relationship is going to be with the people of New York State, and not only Manhattan and Westchester. And enough listening--it's time to talk.

--George W. Bush. No change necessary. He's a blank slate. And thus may be the perfect candidate.

DAVID SHRIBMAN is Washington bureau chief of the Boston Globe and a Pulitzer Prize-winning political reporter.