What is needed, Bradley said, is a policy "that moves us beyond ... ad-hoc firefighting" as crises flare around the globe. His comments were in remarks prepared for delivery to students at Brown University.

He spelled out his thoughts in a long-promised foreign policy speech just before the "Super Tuesday" primaries that many analysts say could all but sweep him out of the race for the Democratic nomination.

"For the past decade we have sometimes been the world's volunteer fire department, a role that we have executed with considerable success," Bradley said in his prepared remarks. "But we have been inconsistent about when we would act and when we would stand aside."

He criticized the Clinton administration for putting its trust in "old leaders who did not deliver on promises" in Russia, and for sending "inconsistent signals" on China's human rights record and its treatment of Taiwan.

Bradley briefly shifted campaign gears two weeks ago and began taking a more confrontational approach to Gore. But he has returned in recent days to speeches that largely ignore Gore and offer Bradley's promises to "think big" on such issues as child poverty and health care.

Asked Friday whether he was pursuing a graceful way to exit the race, Bradley said: "I'm in this to win."

But the Gore campaign no longer seems to consider Bradley a serious threat. Campaign manager Donna Brazile told reporters Friday that it is now mathematically possible for Gore to collect the 2,169 delegates necessary for the nomination by March 14.

Gore campaigned Friday at Raines High School in Jacksonville, Fla., built in 1965 to accommodate 1,550 but now holding more than 1,700 students. Gore told the predominantly black student body that he would, as president, invest federal money in alleviating overcrowding.

Continuing to look past Bradley to the fall campaign, Gore took a shot at Republican front-runner George W. Bush, the Texas governor.

"Governor Bush said the other day that my proposal for the modernizing of schools and giving help in building new classrooms -- he derided it as 'bricks and mortar.' Well, since he doesn't have any plan to help build new schools, his plan is smoke and mirrors," Gore said. "I'd rather have bricks and mortar than smoke and mirrors."

Gore won a standing ovation in the noisy school gymnasium when he went after the "One Florida" initiative of Bush's brother, Jeb, the Florida governor, banning affirmative action in state university admissions.

"Affirmative action is still needed," Gore said.

Later Friday, Gore was giving back to the Democratic Party establishment that made him its favorite for the 2000 nomination. In Atlanta, he was headlining a fund-raising dinner for the Georgia Democratic Party.

Gore also unveiled a new television ad outlining his motivation for wanting to be president.

"A president that's really doing the job the way it's supposed to be done is committed in his or her own heart to fight for all Americans, and especially people who haven't had somebody fight for them in the past," Gore says in the ad. "That's why I want to be president."

Bradley, still hoping to win primaries Tuesday in New York and in New England, released a made-for-New York television ad featuring two Big Apple big shots, filmmaker Spike Lee and former Mayor Ed Koch.

The blunt-speaking Koch this week put the odds "5-1 against" Bradley winning in his state and added, "If he loses New York, he's out."