UMTER, S.C. - With two new polls showing that Senator John McCain has pulled even in the presidential primary here, the campaign of George W. Bush yesterday sharpened its attack and made a potentially risky move into an area long dominated by McCain: military issues.
Military matters were brought up when Bush, holding a rally with veterans who support him, was introduced by a Vietnam veteran who accused McCain of ignoring the concerns of veterans.
With Bush and his surrogates already seeking to cast McCain as a liberal, some of Bush's supporters expressed fears that the move might well backfire. McCain's campaign, on the other hand, welcomed the assault as evidence that the Texas governor's campaign is in disarray.
''I hope they keep doing it,'' former senator Warren B. Rudman, one of McCain's closest advisers, said of the attacks. ''It's evidence that they've panicked. ... George Bush cannot say John McCain is a liberal and is soft on issues related to Vietnam and get away with it; you can't do that to a guy who spent 51/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp.''
At yesterday's rally, J. Thomas Burch, chairman of the National Vietnam and Gulf War Coalition, accused McCain of abandoning veterans on issues ranging from health care to normalization of relations with Vietnam. Burch, a Washington lawyer who flew to South Carolina for the event, told the crowd, ''He always opposed all the legislation.
''He voted in the Senate. He had the power to help veterans,'' said Burch, 57, who served in Vietnam for a year and a half. ''He came home and he forgot us.''
Aides to McCain were delighted that Bush surrogates raised the issue, which they have long considered to be one of McCain's strongest selling points.
Even some aides to Bush interpreted it as a sign of panic. The attack on McCain came after new polls showed the Arizona Republican, who had trailed by more than 20 points in South Carolina polls before the New Hampshire primary, drawing into a statistical tie with Bush. It also underscored a sense, expressed privately by some of Bush's most influential advisers, that his campaign lacks a compelling message and strategy in the wake of the lopsided defeat Tuesday.
According to a Zogby poll taken Wednesday, McCain led Bush 44 percent to 39 percent, with a 4.4-point margin of error. A poll by Rasmussen Research on the same day showed Bush ahead 41 percent to 40 percent, with a 4-point margin of error.
At yesterday's event, Bush did not criticize McCain's voting record on military matters. Responding to McCain television ads that suggest Bush's tax cuts would put Social Security at risk, Bush said, ''Any ad made by John McCain that infers, implies, or says that I won't reserve money for Social Security is Washington-style politics.''
Asked whether he stood by the opinions of the veterans who endorsed him minutes earlier, Bush said simply, ''You need to talk to them about that.
''What I stand by is the fact they took a look at both of us, and they chose me to be the nominee,'' Bush said. ''These men have their opinion and they have stated their opinion. John McCain served our country well, he was a warrior on behalf of America.''
Burch, who had been invited to speak at the event, said he believed Bush shared his views. And former governor David Beasley, who regularly speaks on behalf of the Bush campaign, said that ''while John McCain is a war hero, his legislative record is not exemplary.''
But critics and even some Bush supporters were calling into question this line of attack.
One former national party official and Bush supporter, ticking off a string of strategic miscues, said he had warned campaign officials that Bush runs a grave risk of being seen as desperate if he resorts to using negative attacks to cast McCain as a liberal.
''It's too late for that to work. And it's not believable,'' said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. ''There are some things John McCain is vulnerable on. But calling him a liberal and attacking him on defense issues is like saying Ronald Reagan was soft on communism. People simply will not believe it.''
That strategist, as well as other Bush advisers, said the campaign lacks a coherent message, at the very moment when some Republican voters are beginning to have doubts that Bush has the depth needed to become president.
A former top aide to George Bush, the former president, said the campaign is now riven with dissension, with its Austin ''praetorian guard,'' as he called it, feuding with state coordinators over who is to blame for Bush's lopsided defeat in New Hampshire.
Concerns among Bush's principal supporters about the campaign's direction even led to a meeting Wednesday between Michigan Governor John Engler, one of Bush's principal supporters, whose state primary is just three days after the Feb. 19 South Carolina vote, and Senator Judd Gregg, who ran Bush's campaign in New Hampshire.
According to a former party official who knows both men, the meeting was called to discuss how Bush's state coordinators could seize greater control over the campaign's scheduling and message.
Yesterday's attack by Burch echoes earlier criticisms of McCain, who was assailed by veterans groups when he supported normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam. But his POW record and his often-hawkish views on military issues have protected him from all but his most vehement critics - a fact that explains why Bush's comments are a political risk.
McCain himself professed amazement at Burch's remarks.
''Every veterans organization in America has given me their highest award,'' he said. ''Now, here's the question: Have I fooled all of these veterans organizations that have given me their absolute highest awards and honors, or is there maybe a little bit of foolishness going on here?''
Though Bush may have criticized McCain's tax-cut proposals, the senator's record and policies on the military have gone unchallenged, and his aides say they believe they are unassailable.
''We're glad [Bush] wants to talk about veterans' issues, which I thought would be a demilitarized zone,'' said McCain's political director, John Weaver.
Yesterday afternoon, the campaign distributed a long list of McCain's achievements on the issues for which he was criticized. They included his co-sponsorship of the Agent Orange Act of 1991, to provide disability benefits to veterans with cancer brought on after exposure; his formation of the Arizona Gulf War Syndrome Support Group; and his sponsorship of a 1997 law authorizing free medical and dental care for Reservists and National Guardsmen with Gulf War Syndrome.
At least one veteran thought the criticisms irrelevant.
''Are you comparing a guy who served his country and went into combat, compared to a guy who ran and hid in a reserve unit in Texas?'' said Stephen Fletcher, a submarine veteran and McCain supporter who attended the senator's speech at the Charleston Maritime Center. ''There's no doubt in my mind who these guys are gonna vote for.''
While McCain continued to campaign relentlessly in the state, Bush left South Carolina immediately after his morning event. He stopped off in Delaware for an airport rally and a dinner before flying to Detroit last night. Bush, who is flying home to Austin today for the weekend, showed no concern over the disparity between his schedule and McCain's.
''I'm not sure voters are sitting down calculating how much time a candidate spends in a state,'' he said.
Yvonne Abraham of the Globe Staff, traveling with McCain, contributed to this report.
