OVER, Del. - Under pressure to revamp and energize his campaign, Governor George W. Bush arrived here yesterday championing his credentials as a reformer and the real political outsider in the race.
There was no missing the new message.
A giant blue banner hung over Bush's head during two events, reading, ''A Reformer With Results.'' At a Republican luncheon in Dover, he used the word ''reform'' 11 times in a 15-minute speech. And, unlike his pattern in recent weeks, he did not use his campaign stops to underscore his endorsement by one high-profile party leader or another.
''I want to remind people that in this race there's only one person who can stand up and say, `I'm a reformer with results,''' he told a crowd of about 265 people. ''Somebody who comes from outside the system. Somebody who's got a record of reforming and a record of results.''
The intended comparison was clear: His leading opponent, Arizona Senator John McCain, has championed campaign finance reform but never persuaded the Senate to vote for it.
The new tactic, unveiled on the eve of the Delaware primary but clearly aimed at the South Carolina contest Feb. 19, was part of a carefully orchestrated shift by the Bush campaign, whose soft-edged style has been widely blamed for the wide margin of defeat in the New Hampshire primary last week.
Another new campaign effort is designed to underscore Bush's willingness to hear out and respond to voters' concerns. This move - heralded as ''One on One with Governor Bush'' in another giant banner - is meant to address concerns that Bush's campaign has kept him at too great a remove from actual voters.
And, while the new strategy did not take Bush in new policy directions or even seem to have a noticeably different tone, it changed the dynamic of his dialogue with McCain. As of yesterday, the debate no longer centered on the issues Bush favors, including tax cuts. Instead, both McCain and Bush wrestled for the titles of ''outsider'' and ''reformer.''
McCain laughed off the developments in his opponents' campaign.
''I understand Governor Bush is now a reformer,'' McCain said during a stop in economically depressed Flint, Mich. ''If so, it's his first day on the job. I've been at it for 17 years. It seems to me the Bush campaign can't figure out whether to imitate me or attack me.''
Steve Forbes also campaigned in Delaware for today's primary. No reliable polling has been done in Delaware recently, and campaign aides said a small state can yield unpredictable results.
Only 12 delegates are up for grabs here, but today's vote does have symbolic stakes for all the campaigns. Bush in particular is badly in need of positive headlines, McCain would like further proof of his momentum, and the struggling Forbes campaign is hoping to do respectably in a state he won four years ago.
Forbes, with his campaign coming off a weak showing in New Hampshire, is badly in need of momentum. Delaware would seem like a natural choice. But Forbes aides were not optimistic about today's contest, saying it was likely Forbes would finish third behind Bush and McCain, a potentially embarrassing result given that McCain did not actively compete here while Forbes spent several days traveling the state.
McCain and Bush carried on a long-distance debate throughout the day, and each prepared to release new ads in South Carolina. In particular, Bush went after McCain's position on campaign finance, accusing the Arizona senator of keeping a double standard as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Bush, in his harshest language yet, told reporters at a news conference that McCain had ''raised more money than anybody in the campaign from lobbyists.''
''I'm running for a reason. I want to be judged for results, not rhetoric,'' Bush said. ''The campaigns are all the time full of people saying one thing and doing another, people saying lobbyists are bad and special interests dominate Washington, D.C., and on the other hand pass the plate.''
Bush stopped just short of calling McCain a hypocrite. ''That's your word,'' he told reporters. Asked his word for it, Bush said: ''Washington.''
It appeared, however, that Bush's accusations were inaccurate. According to the most recent figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, Bush far surpasses McCain in his talent for raising money from lobbyists.
As of Sept. 30, Bush had raised nearly five times more from lobbyists than McCain. His total was $480,464. McCain's was $96,675. McCain, however, relied on lobbyists slightly more heavily than Bush; they accounted for 10 percent of his total funds, versus 8.4 percent for Bush.
Yesterday, McCain pounced on the accusation and responded with one of his own: that Bush has received contributions from 20,000 people with Washington ZIP codes, compared with 1,000 similar contributions to the McCain campaign. Bush routinely boasts he is the only candidate without a Washington ZIP code.
McCain called Bush's charges against him ''an act that may be viewed by some as desperation.'' He ridiculed Bush for spending more than $1 million on the Arizona primary, which McCain said he would win. And he feigned nervousness over Michigan Governor John Engler's political organization, which is backing Bush the way Senator Judd Gregg backed Bush in New Hampshire.
''We're all hoping that the Engler machine is as efficient and overwhelming as the Gregg machine was in New Hampshire,'' McCain said.
While McCain joked, his campaign launched a serious ad in South Carolina accusing Bush of releasing a ''new negative ad attacking John McCain and distorting his position.''
And both candidates threatened to go after each other much more aggressively. McCain, referring to his days as a Navy pilot, said he would not hesitate to return Bush's fire.
Countered Bush: ''I'm ready. You haven't seen the Barbara Bush in me yet.''
Jill Zuckman of the Globe Staff contributed to this report from Michigan.
