In fact, in two weeks today Labour will be faced with a tough choice, if tradition continues and the elected MPs meet in Wellington on the Tuesday after the election.
Labour continues to languish in the polls and on present polling National would win by a landslide, putting it in a position in which it could govern alone.
Mr Goff has lifted in the polls and is finally making an inroad into the preferred prime minister stakes, dominated as usual by Mr Key. Without a significant improvement in polling, Mr Goff could face a challenge. If he can lift the party support to above 30 and his own rating close to 20, he should be able to face down any challenge.
Former leader Helen Clark and Labour had low support in 1996 but went on to sweep into power in 1999.
Yesterday, Mr Goff was with co-leader Annette King in the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges, in Courtenay Pl, the home electorate of one of the party's campaign organisers, Grant Robertson. Mr Robertson will play a key role in deciding the next leader of Labour, despite being only a first-term MP until November 26. He is popular in Wellington Central and can be expected to hold his seat against a high-calibre list of opponents.
But some of the other leadership contenders might find themselves back thanks only to their high list-placing.
Mr Goff later spoke at a Kapiti Grey Power meeting, in Paraparaumu, the south end of the electorate held by Internal Affairs Minister Nathan Guy.
Mr Guy took the electorate from one of Labour's favourite sons, Darren Hughes, in 2008 after entering politics as a list MP in 2005. His support has risen sharply and it is unlikely he will lose the seat.
Feelings about Mr Hughes are still raw in Otaki. Mr Goff has shown contrition and said he had tried to do the best for his friend, but there is still animosity about the way the Labour Party dumped on Mr Hughes, a favourite of Helen Clark. Mrs King, who had Mr Hughes as a flatmate in her home, has never publicly acknowledged what her role was in the affair.
Mr Key was attending the Royal New Zealand Returned Services Association annual council and a delegate attending the same meeting was expecting the members to provide a warm greeting. Most members would vote nothing but National and there was full support for the New Zealand Defence Force sending troops to Afghanistan.
Bringing them home a month early was "Labour nonsense".
Grey Power in Kapiti was a strong force at the last election.
The people who mattered in the organisation lived in Kapiti and in the area you see development after development of housing for the elderly. Not all are rest-homes or retirement villages, but the design of them are such that you can tell who they house.
Mr Goff needs to connect with Grey Power, he needs to offer them some confidence that a Labour government will continue to provide support for their pensions.
At each election, New Zealand's ageing population becomes larger and more vocal.
There is always suspicion that National will cut the pension because of actions taken more than 20 years ago. Labour has already indicated it wants to raise the pension age to 67, but implementation is so far away as to be irrelevant.
Mr Goff needs to hit this week with a new energy and enthusiasm. Talking to Grey Power might seem important but it was a day wasted. He needs to focus his thoughts on what Labour strategists believe is his best option to attack the National Party. If that is asset sales, then he needs to head for dams and wind farms, Air New Zealand and a coal mine.
Failure to do so will see the campaign limp to a very unsatisfactory ending for Labour and Mr Goff.