EARBORN, Mich. - A blunt appeal for black votes highlighted the final phase of Al Gore's presidential campaign, a come-from-behind effort that will continue throughout tonight and may hinge on turnout rather than the traditional bounce from a strong economy.
''This is one of those elections you're going to tell your grandkids about: `So close, so hard fought, that I personally made the difference by getting voters to the polls, and we won,' '' the vice president yesterday told a relatively modest crowd of 2,000 gathered in Philadelphia's Fairmont Park.
Taking Air Force Two on what will, whatever the outcome, be one of his final jaunts, Gore was visiting Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Florida, and Tennessee in the campaign's final 48 hours. Along the way, he planned a midnight rally in Miami and a 4 a.m. talk with women in Tampa, before jetting home to Carthage, Tenn., to cast his vote.
A string of none-too-subtle comments in the campaign's final weekend revealed the importance the Gore team places on black voter turnout in the drive to catch Republican nominee George W. Bush, who leads slightly in most national polls. The minority group usually votes Democratic.
Wrapping up a speech in Pennsylvania, the vice president yesterday introduced Louvon Harris, the sister of James Byrd, a black man who was dragged to death by three whites in Texas. Gore pointed out that Bush had rejected her appeals for a tougher hate-crimes law in that state.
''Those who take the position Governor Bush takes say that all crimes are hate crimes. Well, is shoplifting a hate crime?'' the vice president asked, gusts of wind mussing his hair.
''Crimes that are motivated by hatred are different, and here's why: They are intended to have more than one victim. They are intended to intimidate and dehumanize an entire group of people, to give expression to the hatred that corrodes the soul,'' he added.
The attack came a day after three similarly loaded racial remarks by Gore.
On Saturday, during a prayer breakfast in Tennessee, the Democrat spoke of how all people are capable of both good and evil, and ''I am taught that good overcomes evil if we choose that outcome.'' While Gore spoke in spiritual terms, the remarks came amid criticism of Bush and was hard to separate from the political decision facing voters tomorrow.
On Saturday night, Gore criticized Bush for saying repeatedly he would appoint ''strict constructionists'' to the Supreme Court. Addressing the congregation at a black church in Pittsburgh, Gore said the term took him back to an era in which, he said, ''some people were considered three-fifths of a human being.''
During the same speech, Gore chastised Bush for refusing to take a position during the primary campaign about the flying of the Confederate flag over South Carolina's state capitol. Many blacks consider the Civil War flag, since moved from the State House dome to a monument on the ground, a symbol of the slave era.
The vice president said the flag was on the dome ''all clear to the eye, but inexplicably, he did not see a symbol of injustice just inches below that American flag. You saw it; I saw it.''
The Bush campaign bristled at the criticisms and intimations.
''I think this is the last-minute, desperate tactics by a campaign that sees the writing on the wall,'' said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett. ''I think these attacks will be severely discounted by the American people. I think they give insight into what kind of divisive leader he would be.''
Bartlett said Texas already has a hate-crimes law, and ''the state of Texas sent a very strong message that we don't tolerate hate crimes: Two of the three (perpetrators) got the ultimate penalty, death, and the third will spend the rest of his life in prison.''
Gore's strategy hinges on high voter turnout in the Northeast, Midwest, and Florida. Aides were coolly confident they would gain a narrow victory, although they grudgingly conceded Bush could win the popular vote tomorrow. They placed their faith in the Electoral College, which apportions presidential votes based on population, and hoped for victories in elector-rich states like California, New York, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
They also hoped that liberals who have boosted Green Party candidate Ralph Nader in the polls would ultimately vote for Gore in states like Oregon and Washington, where Gore's environmental record should have appeal.
The 52-year-old Gore has well-honed political instincts - he is the son of a senator by the same name, a former member of the House and Senate, an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1988, and has served as vice president for nearly eight years. He said he was confident of his chances, telling reporters late Saturday night: ''We're gonna win. You can write it down. You can check it off.''
In both Philadelphia and later at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, Gore bragged of the booming economy he and President Clinton have presided over since 1992, which has created the first budget surpluses in over 40 years.
''Now that we have this big surplus, the question on the ballot is prosperity itself,'' he said at Fairmont Park.
Gore attacked Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut as skewed toward the rich. ''If we make a large-scale tax cut for the wealthy priority one, two, three, and four, we can't make education priority one,'' he said.
The Democrat also questioned Bush's wish to end partisanship in Washington, despite the worthiness of that goal.
''The question is, who does he want to get along with?'' Gore asked. ''The HMOs? Well, you can get along with them fine if you kill the patients bill of rights. The drug companies? You can get along with them fine if you kill the prescription-drug benefit. You know, sometimes a president has to be willing to say no to special interests in order to be willing to say yes to the people.''
