Gore's advisers, meanwhile, said their own polling is showing the vice president with a slight New Hampshire lead over Bradley for the first time in weeks. Most recent public polls show a dead heat.

Dominant in Iowa and magnanimous in tone, Gore said the close contest in the first primary state was evidence of his rival's skills.

"I think it says more good things about him than I think it says bad things about me," the vice president said.

Meanwhile, the two had a cross-state argument about health care.

Bradley's eyes brimmed with tears at a preschool in Salem after a working mother and a teacher told of the woes of getting care for uninsured children. He said he was going "straight ahead" on the issue because of people like them.

Gore kept up his criticism of Bradley's proposal for near universal health insurance coverage, saying it would post risks to Medicaid and to the future financing of Medicare, points Bradley earlier denied, again.

The vice president said in Lebanon that if a Republican had proposed the limits he says Bradley would put on Medicaid care for the needy, "every Democrat in America would be up in arms about it." Bradley insists he would be providing a better alternative to the current system.

Gore also said that Bradley is not offering a comprehensive agenda for the future, on such topics as foreign policy and the economy. "We haven't turned our backs and walked away from any of the important challenges facing the American people," Gore said. "You've got to attack lots of different challenges at the same time."

The Democratic rivals made forays in New Hampshire before turning full-time to the campaign for the Iowa caucuses next Monday night. Then they'll both be back for an intensive final week of campaigning for the opening primary on Feb. 1.

Each gained the endorsement of a governor.

Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont joined the Gore camp, appearing with the vice president in Lebanon, on the river border of his own state. Dean, a physician, said one reason he endorsed Gore was that the vice president's health care proposals are more realistic than Bradley's.

"It's not as big, it's not as sexy, but it works," Dean said.

Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon announced he is supporting Bradley, citing health care and the environment as two issues that led to his endorsement.

Bradley said he doubted that the verdict in Iowa, where his people argue that 30 percent of the vote would represent success, would have an impact on his showing in New Hampshire.

"I don't think there will be a direct connection," he said. "I think that New Hampshire voters are independent, they make their judgments.

Besides, he said, the Iowa caucuses are an organizational contest in which the Democratic Party establishment, largely on Gore's side, is a powerhouse.

"I think Iowa is a state that rewards entrenched power," he said. "We are working very hard there, and I think we've been making progress."

The pollsters put Gore ahead by margins of 20 percentage points and more in advance of the caucuses, in which Democrats will meet by precinct at 7 p.m. Monday to choose sides.

Bradley dismissed the idea that the contest for the nomination is all but settled for Gore. "That's, I guess, a spin that's out there today," he told reporters when the question was raised. He said it sounds like a wish from the other side, "certainly not the reality."

Bradley said Iowa and New Hampshire are the opening acts in what will become a national campaign five weeks later, with a March-long crush of big state presidential primaries.

"We have the resources to wage both campaigns," he said.

At the Wonder Years Learning Center, Bradley listened as a former teacher and a mother described their problems in getting medical care for sick children who are not covered by health insurance.

When he stood to say that his health care plan would deal with that, his eyes were glistening with tears. He blinked them back, and told Cathy Perry of Pelham that in a Bradley administration her four uninsured children would have a right to medical care, and wouldn't have to apologize for the expense of getting sick. She said her son had told her he was sorry when they had to go to a doctor for his strep throat.

Mary Ruddig of Concord, a former teacher, told of piling coats in the back of an elementary school classroom so that an ill child could lie down, and of taking a student and his mother to a doctor when the family couldn't afford it.

"Sometimes it's important when reality enters a political campaign," Bradley said. "I think we've heard that reality today."

In Iowa, meanwhile, Bradley unveiled a new television ad that praises positive campaigning. In the fight over health care, farm policy and other issues, he says he has taken the high road.

"The radical premise of this campaign is you can go out and tell people what you believe and win," Bradley says in the new 30-second ad. "That you don't have to go out and ... smash the other guy so that people will vote against him. But that you can go out and give people a positive vision of where you want to take the country and they'll have something to vote for."

He ends with a plea for supporters to go to the caucuses and support him. "I need your help. I need your help," he says.