ANGHORNE, Pa. - The Bush campaign had expected Al Gore to get a ''bounce'' from the Democratic convention in mid-August. History shows that nominees get a lift in the polls, in the afterglow of their party meetings.
Yet Gore's bounce continued well into September, and George W. Bush's insistence upon dictating the terms of his debates with the vice president only seemed to add to his problem.
Today, with two debates done and the final encounter coming Tuesday, the Texas governor has eliminated Gore's advantage, and has pulled ahead in some public opinion surveys.
While some of the explanation may lie with Gore's exaggerations, or his much-dissected heavy sighs at the first debate, a measure of credit may belong to a tightening of Bush's operation about a month ago.
In some cases, the changes ran counter to the candidate's tendencies. Across the board, they exhibited the campaign's willingness to accept - and address - the new reality of what it might take to win the presidency.
The Republican nominee, who for months delighted in ambling back on his campaign plane to chitchat with reporters or to marvel at the work of his traveling photographers, learned that his free-wheeling exchanges and regular press conferences had undercut the effort to deliver a chosen message each day.
The banter ended.
Gore repeated his criticism of Bush's $1.3 trillion tax-cut plan. And then Bush said Gore's package of $500 billion in ''targeted'' cuts had offered vivid proof that he trusted government to make decisions for the public, while Bush's own across-the-board reduction let everyone decide how to spend his or her own money.
The tax-cut speeches began.
And when Gore zeroed in on Bush's policy proposals, highlighting the low rankings in Texas on the environment, health care, and education, Bush decided to rebut the details with a more general outline of his priorities.
The imagery rolled out.
In little more than 24 hours this week, the scope of Bush's revised approach to the campaign was on display.
Just after noon on Wednesday, Bush popped out of his hotel in Greensboro, N.C., and headed for nearby Wake Forest University to get a feel for Wait Chapel, site of the second debate with Gore.
As he stepped into his limousine, a reporter yelled from across the parking lot, asking Bush what he had to accomplish. Like Ronald Reagan, the Republican icon under whom Bush's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, served as vice president, Bush cupped his hand to his ear as he strained to hear at his only unscripted press encounter of the day.
''Tell people what's on my heart, what's in my mind,'' he replied innocuously.
Hours later, at the debate itself, Gore took aim at Bush on health, saying he lagged in registering children for health insurance. He said it was an outgrowth of the governor's priorities, which, he said, include a tax cut that gives the wealthiest 1 percent more money than Bush has proposed in new spending for health care, education, prescription drug coverage, and national defense, combined.
Impatient with the criticism, Bush interrupted the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer.
''Let's talk about my tax plan,'' the governor said. ''The top 1 percent pay one-third of all the federal income taxes, and in return, get one-fifth of the benefits. ... That stands in stark contrast for a man who will leave 50 million Americans out of tax relief. We have a different point of view. It's a totally different point of view. He believes only the `right' people ought to get tax relief. I think everybody who pays taxes ought to get tax relief.''
A day later, at a campaign appearance at a suburban Philadelphia high school, Bush used a Teleprompter.
Speaking steadily and avoiding the verbal missteps that have plagued his campaign, Bush tied together his focused campaign message and his vigorous defense of his tax cut, as well as his other policy proposals, with a misty-eyed tribute to World War II veterans. The language sounded like something that speechwriter Peggy Noonan might have penned: big on imagery, long on themes, spare on specifics.
''This election is a milestone,'' the governor began. ''For the first time since 1960, neither candidate for president comes from the generation of World War II. Think about that. That generation is what we now call `the Greatest Generation.'
''We honor that generation for its achievements. They won the war, went to Korea, put our flag on the moon, and prevailed in the Cold War. They built universities and highways, and they gave us the semiconductor,'' Bush said.
Bush singled out a local resident, Jack Mekel, who at age 17 enlisted in the Navy after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and ''as the sound of rifle fire lifted, he claimed four battle stars.''
The crowd at Neshimany High School, including football players in their varsity jerseys, cheerleaders waving pompoms, and veterans sporting their VFW caps, gave him a standing ovation.
Bush went on to outline his plan to save Social Security. He also bragged about his proposal to provide a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. What he didn't do was answer Gore's criticism that his plan to let younger workers invest some of their Social Security taxes could cost up to $1 trillion over a decade. He also didn't rebut the vice president's complaint that Bush refuses to state outright he wouldn't tap Medicare surpluses for other government purposes.
Instead, he reprised the themes and words of his own nomination acceptance speech to offer a more plain-spoken response.
''My opponent, on these issues, takes a little different tack. As the election nears, he has fallen back on a familiar strategy: fear, division, and misrepresentation,'' Bush said. ''I warned of this in my convention speech. It was not hard to predict. The tactics are one last, parting ploy. After all, Mr. Gore represents the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but all he has to offer is fear itself.''
The rebuttal was reminiscent of a reply the governor offered during the debate. Gore attacked his Texas record by citing the number of children without health insurance, and by pointing out census figures showing that the state ranked last in the number of families with health insurance, and next to last for women and children with health insurance.
As Reagan so often used to do in the 1980s, Bush eschewed a point-by-point response in favor of a thematic reply.
''If he's trying to allege I'm a hard-hearted person and don't care about children, he's absolutely wrong,'' the Republican nominee said. ''He can throw out all the kinds of numbers; our state comes together to do what's right. We come together, both Republicans and Democrats.''
Afterward, polls suggested Bush had won the debate. The next four weeks will show whether his strategic changes paid off.
