ANGHORNE, Pa. - A buoyant George W. Bush reveled in his generally well-received performance in Wednesday night's debate, while a subdued-looking Al Gore abandoned the campaign trail to meet a far more immediate demand: being vice president during a national crisis.
From the cockpit to the candidate, confidence bubbled through the Bush campaign. ''I think the American people saw their next president last night in Governor Bush,'' Bush's chief spokeswoman, Karen Hughes, told reporters.
Even the pilot of Bush's chartered Boeing 757 had an optimistic viewpoint as the aircraft flew over the White House from the debate site in North Carolina. ''If you look to your left, governor, there's your new home,'' the pilot said.
Bush himself displayed a little swagger, summoning a pool of reporters to offer his thoughts on renewed violence in the Middle East and an attack on a Navy vessel in Yemen. Foreign affairs had been considered a Bush weakness after he fumbled the names of overseas leaders and countries earlier in the campaign.
''When I think back to Governor Bush's performance last night, one word comes to mind: `presidential,''' said Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, introducing his Texas colleague to a crowd of more than 3,000 at Neshimany High School outside Philadelphia.
But while the White House loomed tantalizingly in the eyes of the Bush campaign, for the Gore camp, it was a serious workday destination.
What was meant to be a boisterous rally in Milwaukee started out, at least, as a somber homage to the American sailors who lost their lives yesterday off the coast of Yemen. Ralliers bowed their heads and lowered their glittery pompoms to share a moment of silence for the lost sailors.
Gore vowed to punish any terrorists who attack US forces, drawing a loud cheer from the audience.
Politics, however, did not stay long on the sidelines. The vice president also took a few shots at Bush's record in Texas, accusing the governor of lavishing tax cuts on the oil industry at the expense of providing needy children with health care.
''It's not about his heart or my heart, it's about our nation's heart,'' Gore said. ''I believe America's heart is with the children who do not have health care.''
Both campaigns insisted their candidate had bested the other in the area of foreign policy, which consumed the first half of Wednesday night's debate.
''It was interesting,'' Hughes said as she briefed reporters aboard the campaign plane. ''The governor was pointing out to me how many times the vice president said two words - `I agree' - when Governor Bush was outlining his foreign policy,'' she said.
Gore advisers, meanwhile, shook their heads in quiet amazement at how frequently Bush backed up the policies of the current White House.
''I think his comments on foreign policy were to basically support the administration,'' said Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley. ''It's fairly easy to be knowledgeable when you just agree with the other guy.''
But it was Gore who got to look near-presidential yesterday, rushing back to Washington on Air Force Two to huddle in the White House Situation Room with national security advisers. Gore has not had a formal meeting in the White House since early summer.
The impact among voters is not as great as it would be for an incumbent president running for reelection, said Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. But with the media attention on the White House, combined with Americans' tendency to rally around their leaders during a crisis, Gore may have burnished his image with yesterday's trip back to the capital, Hess said.
''Clearly, vice president is a better role for him than candidate at this point,'' Hess said.
Facing a tight race, Gore will continue to criticize Bush's record in Texas, his aides said. The Democrats also sought to highlight Bush's debate mistakes: for example, Bush said all three men convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. would get the death penalty; in fact, one of the men was not sentenced to death.
Bush closed the day with a rousing reception before 5,000 people in Grand Rapids, Mich., the home of Gerald Ford and a Republican stronghold. In his remarks, Bush labeled Gore a big spender, saying, ''This is a man, if you look at the real numbers, you'll find he wants to grow the size of the federal government three times bigger than that size propsed by President Bill Clinton. His proposals are larger than the propsals of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis combined.''
Bush also reiterated his support for limited deployments of US military forces.
''Our military is not the world's policemen, and our military will not be the world's social worker,'' he said.
