ALLAS - It was planned as a terrific irony: George W. Bush campaigning in Tennessee, challenging the vice president for votes in his own home state.
There was even a slogan for yesterday's campaign stop in a Memphis suburb: ''Listen to people who know them best.'' But in a short visit - which was cut even shorter when Bush decided to return to Texas early to go jogging - the Republican candidate mostly told voters what to think of his opponent, using strong and personal language.
At a midday rally that drew thousands, Bush tore into the speech Gore gave at the Democratic Convention the previous night, attacking the vice president's style and questioning his sincerity. Accusing Gore of being divisive, Bush said his speech was essentially empty, designed purely to cover up past mistakes.
''Last night we heard a laundry list of new promises which I thought was an attempt to cover up old failures - a list of promises without purpose or vision,'' Bush said.
''The conventions are over and the battle lines are clearly drawn,'' he continued. ''On the one hand, they have four more years of finger-pointing, politicizing and blaming, a candidate who wants to pit one group of people against another, a candidate who wants to wage class warfare to get ahead. I've got a different vision of leadership.''
The remarks came as the campaign entered a new phase, following the end of both parties' nominating conventions. Both candidates had predicted a dramatic change starting yesterday.
Bush, who a day earlier announced he would participate in three presidential debates, reiterated his commitment to facing Gore in the final months of the campaign, saying he would meet the vice president ''in a format that people will listen to and pay attention to.'' He left open questions about whether he would participate in a series of debates planned by the official Commission on Presidential Debates.
While Gore kept up a hectic pace, making a red-eye flight aboard Air Force Two to the Midwest to embark on an 11-hour day of campaigning along the Mississippi River, Bush kept a more limited schedule. After holding the Tennessee rally, he and running mate Dick Cheney flew to Dallas, where they spoke to reporters at the airport before disappearing from public view.
Karen Hughes, the Bush communications director, said the Texas governor cut short the visit because he preferred going running in Dallas.
Speaking to reporters on board his campaign plane, Bush gave his take on the race, and on Gore's speech in particular. He even offered Gore some praise for his Democratic convention performance, saying he thought the vice president had achieved his goal of presenting himself as independent from President Clinton.
''Well he convinced me.... What he convinced me of is that, sure. Yes. I mean, he's standing on his own two feet,'' Bush said, stammering a bit when asked whether Gore's claim that he is his ''own man'' was convincing. ''Having done that myself, I know what it's like to stand up in front of the convention and say, `Here's my view, here's my plan, here's how I intend to lead.'''
But Bush took issue with Gore's attempts to cast the Democratic ticket as a populist force that contrasts with an elitist Republican ticket.
''It's hard to lead a nation by dividing, by pitting people against each other,'' he said. ''That's the rhetoric of the past, where you kind of group warfare or class warfare, and I don't think Americans are going to buy that style of leadership. But what the heck do I know?''
