RLANDO, Fla. - With all eyes watching his return to the campaign trail, Bill Bradley yesterday made a spirited run at Vice President Al Gore for questioning his commitment to health and retirement benefits for the elderly and the disabled.
''Is there one person in this room who questions our belief in Social Security or Medicare or civil rights?'' Bradley asked the thousands gathered here for the state Democratic Party convention. ''I don't think so. That's why I find it so dismaying that one Democrat can attack another on these issues that are articles of faith of our party.''
Two days after Bradley was taken to the hospital with an irregular heartbeat, his voice was strong and his mood seemed high as he energetically laid out his agenda and vision for the presidency. Aides said he would continue to maintain a full pace on the campaign trail, including two days in New Hampshire at the end of the week.
Bradley never mentioned Gore's name during his rebuke, and later, he refused to characterize the vice president's attacks on his proposals. ''The words speak for themselves,'' he said, before heading to a fund-raiser.
But Steve Pajcic, who is leading Bradley's Florida effort, was blunt as he answered the question on behalf of the candidate, calling Gore's statements ''nasty political exaggerations and overstatement.''
In recent weeks, Gore and his allies have flayed Bradley daily for his health care proposal, which would replace Medicaid with subsidies for private insurance. The vice president contends that the plan would destroy Medicaid, undermine Medicare, and harm African-Americans, Latinos, the disabled, and the elderly.
Until yesterday, Bradley has had little to say about the criticism, and his campaign staff has struggled internally over how best to respond. An attempt at humor last week that accused Gore of ''uncontrollable lying'' was quickly renounced by the New Jersey headquarters and attributed to the New Hampshire staff.
Both candidates will meet Friday evening in Nashua for a town-hall style meeting to be televised on ABC's ''Nightline.'' It will be the Democratic candidates' second get-together. At the convention yesterday, the former New Jersey senator attempted to set his record straight.
''I served 18 years on the Senate Finance Committee and worked to protect Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security,'' Bradley told the party faithful here. ''And frankly, I don't remember Democrats attacking Democrats on this issue - at least not in the party I joined and the party I'm a member of today.''
Nevertheless, the Gore campaign was unremorseful yesterday.
''If a Republican had proposed eliminating Medicaid and replacing it with a voucher system that was insufficient to cover the poor, the disabled, the elderly, and those who are HIV positive, every Democrat in the country would be up in arms,'' said Chris Lehane, Gore's spokesman. ''Instead of defending his plan on the merits and the substance, he just cries foul.''
Bradley had his own barbs for Gore, which he also delivered without naming his opponent for the Democratic nomination.
''We're the greatest country in the world at the moment of our greatest prosperity, and yet there are some people who say we cannot do big things anymore - that we must just tinker around the edges and approve a few little things here and there,'' Bradley said.
''Well, I say, now is not the time to settle,'' he said, in a refrain he used repeatedly while calling for affordable health care for all, registering and licensing all handgun owners, bringing all children out of poverty, publicly financing elections, maintaining affirmative action, and demanding the best public schools in the world.
''You know something? I don't think you're willing to settle,'' said Bradley, his voice rising. ''Democratic leaders do not settle!''
Though Bradley was well received here, this was a crowd that belonged more to Gore than to his challenger. The delegates have strong ties to organized labor and the teachers' union and have been stroked for years by President Clinton and Gore, both of whom spoke on Saturday.
Few people attending the convention expressed any serious concern about Bradley's heart condition, which is called atrial fibrillation and results in an occasional irregular heartbeat. Bradley said he forgot to take his medication, sparking last Friday's episode, and his heart corrected itself before he even arrived at the hospital in California.
