ill Bradley sketched a portrait yesterday of the kind of leader he hopes to be - and the kind of candidate he hopes he never becomes.
The sort of leader to emulate? Ronald Reagan, for his potent appeal to American optimism and his skill in building a mandate for the big changes he had in mind.
The former New Jersey senator parts ways with Reagan on most issues, though he voted for Reagan's 1981 spending cuts. Bradley covets a popular mandate for his own big policy ideas and said he hopes to win one by speaking to the idealistic instincts of American voters.
''You explain these things in dangerous detail in the middle of the campaign,'' said Bradley, during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Boston Globe. ''You lay it out specifically. If you win by a sizable margin, the people have given you a mandate to do big things and then the opposition will not be as strong.''
And what of the kind of candidate he hopes never to become? That would be Vice President Al Gore, his Democratic rival, who has been sharply critical of Bradley's proposal to reform the health care system.
Bradley has mostly refused to return the darts, but he also said yesterday he won't be pummeled indefinitely without a reply.
''I want to keep things on a positive level,'' he said, ''but you don't keep taking elbows. ... I'm not about to leave myself defenseless.''
Gore continued his assault yesterday, saying that Bradley's array of policy initiatives would squander the federal surplus, drive up interest rates and harm the economy.
''If you add up the proposals Senator Bradley has made, he spends more than the surplus,'' Gore said in an interview. ''That's why his plan would drive up short-term interest rates from car loans to mortgages.''
Bradley scoffed at Gore's math, and his methods.
''Every day you turn around there's another attack and personally I think people are fed up with these attacks,'' Bradley said. ''I suppose one of the things you might want to ask him is what is the total amount he's committed to spend, because we're keeping a running tally.''
Bradley refused to divulge any further details or offer up any numbers. He also said Gore's analysis of his own proposals is baseless.
''Who is going to tell you what the surplus is going to be five years from now or 10 years from now?'' he said. ''I just reject the analysis.''
Asked if Gore is making up facts to support his charges, Bradley said, ''Yeah.''
Bradley ranged over many topics during the 75-minute session at the Globe, from his broad policy hopes, at home and abroad, to his style of leadership to the details of presidential politics and strategy.
On his leadership style, Bradley said he learned his core lessons on the basketball court, during his days with the New York Knicks, and in Congress. In both settings, he said, he wasn't an out-front ''leader'' but he said he learned how to make the system work to achieve his goals, from championships to tax reform legislation.
He said he was confident, saying his campaign is meeting its goals, in terms of voter support and fund-raising, and that he feels certain he can win the nomination even if he doesn't win either the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary.
Iowa holds the first caucuses, on Jan. 24, and New Hampshire holds the first-in-the-nation primary, on Feb. 1. Those states have traditionally weeded out candidates who do not win or do well there.
''I don't think that either are a must win, but I do think that it is important to do well,'' he said.
Bradley said he has his eye on the primaries that come March 7, which he called ''take-off time,'' as the decisive phase of the campaign. Those primaries include California, New York, Missouri, Ohio, and Massachusetts, among others.
''The whole thing has been premised and the resources have been amassed to go through the spring,'' he said.
Bradley also said he will win significant support among ''superdelegates,'' party leaders and officeholders whose votes could tip the balance at the Democratic National Convention. Gore currently enjoys significant support among the superdelegates, but Bradley said that pattern won't hold after he starts beating the vice president in the primaries.
On policy, Bradley was most pointed in his desire to use the power of the presidency to promote improved race relations. He said the most dismaying thing he has encountered on the campaign trail is the persistence of a segment of voters ''who don't accept differences of race and gender and sexual orientation.''
If elected, Bradley said, he would devote himself to setting the tone for the country on issues of race by appointing a diverse Cabinet and hiring people of different backgrounds throughout the federal government.
On this point, Bradley complimented President Clinton for having done a good job of bringing people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds into the federal government. And he cited Ann Richards, the former governor of Texas, as an example he would follow.
''When Ann Richards was governor of Texas, she had a position she wanted filled by an African American and her staff came in and said `No, we can't find anybody to do that who's African American,' '' Bradley recounted. ''And she said, `Well, this will stay open until you do.' Three weeks later, they had several candidates for the position.''
Bradley said that a president should not run away from affirmative action, and should try to help create a multiracial coalition to fight injustice, such as child poverty. He also said a president has a duty to talk about the difficult subjects that spring from race, including the fact the whites often get unfair advantages because of their race, a phenomenon that Bradley said is better described as ''white skin privilege'' than racism.
''I believe the president has a unique role to challenege people to honor their better selves, and sometimes that means simply being very direct with them,'' he said. ''Sometimes that means talking about things that are unpleasant to some people.''
Bradley said he believes Americans want racial unity because of the reactions he has gotten from white audiences. He said his candidacy could live or die on whether he is reading Americans right.
''If I'm wrong, I'm toast,'' he said. ''If I'm right, we can do something about it.''
