AN FRANCISCO - Everything looked gray and foreboding over Bill Bradley's shoulder: the rain, the churning bay, the scavenging seagulls, and the forces that stand between him and victory in California.
With his back to a vast picture window overlooking San Francisco Bay, Bradley launched his campaign in the Golden State Thursday without the advantage of a law like New Hampshire's that allows independent voters to choose Democratic ballots on election day in the crucial race for nominating delegates.
The scenario is the same in several other states, including New York, holding primaries March 7 - the 15-state national scramble that is the ''Super Tuesday'' of this compressed political season. It is, all in all, a formidable challenge for Bradley's independent-driven campaign.
With Vice President Al Gore commanding an even stronger hold on the Democratic establishment and labor unions in many upcoming primary states than he did in New Hampshire, Bradley, in his quest to prevail in the March 7 primaries, is searching for ways to win in the states where he cannot rely on independents. New York and California alone send 728 delegates to the party convention - about one-third of the number needed to nominate.
''It's not going to be as simple for Bradley as it was in New Hampshire,'' said Bill Carrick, a California-based Democratic strategist who is not allied with Gore or Bradley. ''He is going to have to have a much broader appeal than he has ever had before.''
The New Hampshire results illustrate the difficult dynamic for Bradley. While Gore clobbered him among registered Democrats, 60 percent to 40 percent, Bradley relied on independents to keep the contest competitive. Independents backed Bradley over Gore, 55 percent to 43 percent, cutting the margin of the vice president's victory to 4 percentage points.
Lagging far behind Gore in national polls, Bradley can ill afford poor showings in the big states on March 7, when nearly 60 percent of the nominating delegates will be allocated.
''There's no question that's a challenge,'' said Chris Stone, a Bradley organizer and law student at the University of California at Berkeley, of the restrictive ballot laws. ''We need to work on bringing over union people and the traditional Democratic constituencies.''
Bradley made a last-ditch appeal Thursday for California independents to register as Democrats before the deadline on Monday, a month before the election. Beyond that, he tried to better target his core message at rank-and-file Democrats. And he made clear that he will continue to portray Gore as irreparably tainted by scandal and an integrity deficit, and as ultimately unelectable in November.
Bradley also indicated he may escalate his increasingly bitter campaign against Gore by attacking the vice president for not more forcefully condemning President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. Asked about the Lewinsky scandal during a series of interviews with California television stations, Bradley suggested the Clinton taint extends to Gore: ''All I know is, people come up to me and say we need a fresh start.''
Regardless of the content, the tone of Bradley's attacks on Gore is likely to sharpen. The days of town meetings are largely over. No more intimate exchanges like the one that began his campaign in ''a living room in Jaffrey,'' N.H.
The ''national primary'' will be fought over the airwaves, with a multimillion-doller ad strategy and campaign events staged for the maximum media exposure. And the Secret Service is scheduled to begin protecting Bradley on Monday, further walling him off from the New Hampshire-like experience.
''You can't do town meetings in all these states,'' Bradley said in California. ''You have to reach people through the media. I believe people will see that as more aggressive. But you have to boldly strike the differences. You'll certainly see more of that.''
Bradley's most recent attack fizzled when US Senator Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat who is one of Bradley's top supporters, asked the former New Jersey senator to stop calling on Gore to apologize for insults that Gore supporters heaped on Kerrey during an incident last week in New Hampshire.
But Bradley's spokesman, Eric Hauser, said Bradley does not plan to miss an opportunity to criticize Gore on issues of ''candor, conviction and responsibility.''
In particular, Bradley hopes to chip into Gore's support among women in California, who are expected to constitute about 55 percent of the total Democratic voters, by highlighting Gore's opposition in the 1980s to federally funded abortions.
In addition, Bradley loyalists said, they intend to amplify their argument that Democrats should support Bradley because his strength among independents will make him a stronger candidate in the general election.
''We're going to continue to send a big signal that he's going to have that kind of support in November,'' said Representative George Miller, one of Bradley's top allies in California. ''Everybody wants to know where the independents are going to go, and New Hampshire was a pretty good indication.''
However, polls show solid support for Gore across a broad demographic in California, from Latinos, who will make up about 15 percent of the Democratic vote, to union members.
Under a new law in California, members of any party can vote for any candidate on election day, and the results will be tallied without regard to party. But both major parties will allocate nominating delegates based solely on the vote totals from their party members.
As a result, Bradley could win the popular vote but lose to Gore in the more important race for Democratic delegates. ''The next morning, Bradley could say, `Look, this is about getting crossover votes so we can win in the fall, and the fact that I won here demonstrates I'm the better nominee,''' Carrick said. ''But what good would that be if the other guy has the majority of delegates?''
As Bradley heads toward the March 7 crossroad of his candidacy, he has demonstrated more frequent flashes of fiery rhetoric but has generally maintained his reserved manner.
At times, though, his frustration has surfaced, as it did long after midnight Thursday on a cross-country flight to California. The heating system had malfunctioned, and reporters in the rear of the plane were bundled in coats and blankets. As Bradley passed glumly through the cabin, he joined in the occupants' exasperation, uncharacteristically uttering a curse, that there would be no hot meal because there was no oven on board.
The next day, Bradley vented some angst in an impromptu assault on a punching bag in a television news director's office. The bag, he said as he wailed away, ''embodies everything I dislike.''
