Bush and Gore Turn Up the Heat in the Midwest

Their messages blunt and contentious, the presidential candidates crossed the contested Midwest on Thursday, portraying each other in starkly negative fashion as they courted the voters who will decide the tight presidential election.

Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore projected a sunny countenance before a massive rally amid the skyscrapers of Chicago’s Loop, even as his campaign unleashed a new ad that directly questioned Bush’s fitness for the Oval Office.

“Is he ready to lead America?” asked the ad after criticizing Texas Gov. George W. Bush on his tax cut and his handling of the environment in his home state. The 30-second television ad was appearing in 17 states where the candidates are running neck and neck.

In the Missouri city of St. Charles, Republican nominee Bush sought to tie Gore to one of the Clinton administration’s most ignominious episodes, the 1994 defeat of the proposed health care plan quarterbacked by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“He says he’s for a step-by-step plan for universal coverage. No, folks. He’s for a hop, skip and a jump to nationalized health care,” Bush said of Gore. “He thought Hillary-care made a lot of sense.”

Later in the day, Bush’s campaign was jarred when the governor confirmed that he had been arrested for drunken driving in 1976. He has long acknowledged an alcohol problem during that time and said he quit drinking in 1986.

With a mere five days to go before election day, the candidates on Thursday were delivering caustic criticisms that for so many months has been discreetly parceled out to surrogates. The Gore ad was an example.

For some time, Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman has been saying that Bush is not qualified to be president. Several days ago, Gore’s wife, Tipper, made the same argument. But, with rare exceptions, Gore has not.

“I haven’t said that because I don’t think it’s my place to say that,” he told reporters Saturday.

But Thursday, his campaign unleashed the question across the contested states.

“Minimum wage at $3.35 an hour. Lets polluters police themselves . . . squanders the surplus on a tax cut for those making over $300,000,” the ad says. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the ad was justified because Bush “broke his promise not to engage in personal, negative attacks.”

Earlier this week, the Bush campaign began airing, in 20 contested states, a commercial that accuses Gore of shading the truth. After airing a clip of the vice president saying that “there has never been a time when I have said something untrue,” the announcer in the Bush ad asks pointedly: “Really?”

The heightened negativity at this stage of the campaign is neither accidental nor surprising. Each man is seeking to boost the turnout of his backers Tuesday, while depressing the voting of his opponents’ supporters.

National polls released Thursday continued to show a narrow Bush lead, well within the margin of error. Gore continued to do well in several key states, however, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to new polls.

The concentration of attention on the Midwest was amply evident Thursday. Gore, Bush and Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney were all in Chicago at roughly the same time. Bush’s and Lieberman’s planes were also briefly at the same airport in St. Louis, with Lieberman departing and Bush arriving.

As election day neared, the machinery of politics roared into high gear: Surrogates flew across the nation touting their candidates. Endorsements and fliers flooded mailboxes. Interest groups staffed phone banks. President Clinton arrived in California for the first of two days of campaigning intended to boost the turnout of Democratic loyalists and help out party nominees in several close congressional races.

Clinton drew jeers from the Bush campaign because of a remark made to a radio show catering to African Americans, the party’s most loyal voting bloc. When the host rued that Clinton could not run for another term, the president said, “You can get the next best thing.”

Gore officials shrugged off the president’s line, comparing his connection with Clinton to the passing of the torch from Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle.

Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes saw the remark as evidence of what the Republican nominee has declared during the campaign--that Gore would serve a third Clinton term.

“Thank you for making our case,” she said of Clinton.

Gore, who is not scheduled to campaign with Clinton before election day, spent Thursday melding negative ads with a sunny derision of Bush’s policies as a throwback to those of the past. They are, he said, a threat to American prosperity.

“We have a big choice,” the vice president shouted. “My choice is to continue the prosperity . . . keep it going and don’t turn back.”

“My message to George Bush is, we are not going back. We are going forward,” the once undemonstrative vice president said as he pumped his right arm repeatedly toward the damp Chicago sky.

Chicago police estimated the crowd at 50,000, likely an exaggeration. But it was immense, sprawling over much of the wide block that is Daley Plaza, covering enough space to host several Chicago Bears football games at once.

As he has for several days, Gore rallied his backers to turn out on election day. Democrats have long worried that Republican voters are more energized this year because they have been denied the White House for eight years.

“There is one day that comes around every four years, courtesy of our founders . . . and on that one day you have the power,” he said. Tuesday, he said, “is turnout-and-dignity day.”

Challenging Bush’s environmental record in Texas and alluding to the nation’s smoggiest skies, he said, “You don’t want to see the Chicago skyline look like the Houston skyline.

“Man, oh man. We need a commitment to a cleaner environment.”

As Gore hit Scranton, Pa., Chicago and Las Cruces, N.M., Bush spent his day in St. Charles, outside St. Louis; the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn; and Milwaukee.

In St. Charles, Bush suffered one of his trademark tongue slips as he was discussing Social Security. He touted his plan, which would allow younger workers to invest some of their retirement taxes into the stock market or bonds.

“This frightens some in Washington, because they want the federal government controlling the Social Security, like it’s some kind of federal program,” Bush said. Social Security is, of course, a federal program, and Bush spokeswoman Hughes later said he misspoke.

As he campaigned, Bush again tried to portray Gore as a big government aficionado. He denounced Gore’s plan to provide every American, eventually, with health insurance.

In another shot, the governor noted that Gore had said during one of the debates that he is against big government. Bush added with mock disbelief:

“I knew this man is prone to exaggerations. But this one takes the cake!”

Throughout the day, however, Bush leavened his criticism with optimism, portraying himself as the salve to heal the nation’s governmental wounds.

“I believe we can accomplish anything we set our hearts to,” Bush told the cheering throngs in St. Charles.

Later, at a rally at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Milwaukee, Bush ticked off a list of issues that he said had not been addressed during the Clinton-Gore administration.

“We’ve seen enough. It’s time for new leadership in America,” he said.

As he has increasingly done in the last several days, Bush reserved his most effusive praise for his own tax plan, which would lower tax rates for all Americans, eradicate the inheritance tax and curb the marriage penalty.

His plan, he said, would provide “a second wind to our economic growth.”

The vice presidential candidates, meanwhile, on Thursday played their traditional second-fiddle roles. Lieberman stormed across three Midwestern battleground states, rallying supporters with ceaseless criticism about Bush.

In a community center outside St. Louis, Lieberman said Bush’s proposal to allow younger workers to privately invest some of their retirement funds was “irresponsible.”

“The governor has given new meaning to an old phrase: the Texas Two-Step,” Lieberman said. “It may be a good dance, but not with people’s retirement funds.”

The senator from Connecticut also echoed the campaign’s new ad, deriding Bush’s experience.

”. . . Gov. Bush is not ready to be the kind of president America needs today,” he said. Nonetheless, former Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot endorsed Bush on Thursday.

Cheney met up with Bush in Illinois, where the two are looking for a big rural and suburban vote to offset Gore’s urban advantage. Before that, the Republican vice presidential nominee stopped in a Tennessee town just one hour’s drive from Carthage, Gore’s hometown.

In Gallatin, Cheney’s backers packed a junior college gymnasium, booing lustily every time Cheney mentioned the Democratic native son.

Several times, the crowd launched into chants: “No more Gore!”

Gerstenzang reported from the Gore campaign and Chen from the Bush campaign. Also contributing to the report, which was written by Times political writer Cathleen Decker, were Times staff writers Geoff Boucher and Matea Gold.