MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democrat Bill Bradley, taking an aggressive new stance, charged last night that Veep Al Gore could not be trusted as president — because he has lied as a candidate.
“Why should we believe you will tell the truth as president if you don’t tell the truth in your ads?” Bradley demanded at the make-or-break debate, citing newspaper editorials that say Gore’s ads are misleading.
Gore retorted: “You were forced to apologize for one negative attack” — a Bradley flier last November that said “uncontrolled lying” is a symptom of “Gore-itis.” Bradley aides yanked it.
Bradley shot back that was like comparing “a gnat to an elephant,” since the flier went to a few hundred people, while Gore ads were seen by millions, and added: “You’re the elephant of negative advertising.”
Gore claimed Bradley was going negative right there, snapping: “That’s a negative attack. People are tired of that.”
But Bradley — in the ultimate insult for a Democrat — said such charges make him think of Richard Nixon, who “would chop down a tree and stand on the stump and give a speech about conservation.”
It was a roll of the dice for underdog Bradley, who dropped his cerebral style to smack Gore on abortion, health care, education, special-interest funds and Russia.
Gore — caught off guard at the start, when CNN anchor Judy Woodruff flatly said some of the veep’s campaign charges were false — went back and forth between flustered and combative.
The open question is whether Bradley’s attacks score with voters and help him reverse Gore’s front-runner momentum in time to save his campaign — or backfire.
On abortion, Bradley cited Hillary Rodham Clinton’s claim that she’s more credible as a pro-choicer than is Mayor Giuliani, because she has always been one.
“I have always supported a woman’s right to choose,” Gore replied.
Bradley shot back that Gore had an 84 percent right-to-life voting record in the House, adding: “People can evolve, but your campaign can’t go around saying that you have always been for a woman’s right to choose when you haven’t.”
Bradley also pointed to news reports that Gore is getting big campaign bucks from lobbyists, and charged that the veep is “working hand in glove with special interests.”
Gore retorted — with a verbal slip: “I’ve never been afraid to stand up for the special interests” — when he actually meant “stand up to” them.