MANCHESTER, N.H. - While the two Democratic presidential candidates continued their argument over who is the stronger supporter of abortion rights, George W. Bush campaigned here for the first time beside his father, former President Bush, whose bruising 1992 primary is still a painful family memory.
With the contests still close in both parties the final weekend before Tuesday's primary, abortion continued to be the top issue yesterday between the Democrats. Bill Bradley again attacked Al Gore for having said as a congressman in 1987 that abortion was ''arguably the taking of a human life,'' while Gore stressed that his position as a strong supporter of abortion rights has been consistent for more than a decade. Bradley's attack was intended to raise questions about the vice president's overall credibility.
But Gore, who said in Wednesday's debate that he has always supported abortion rights, conceded in an interview yesterday that his position on federal funding of abortions, which he had opposed, has ''evolved.''
Separately, Gore retracted his 13-year-old statement equating abortion with the taking of a human life. He said: ''Yes, my position has changed. I strongly support a woman's right to choose, and if [Bradley] disputes that, then he is making a mistake.''
Bradley, in an interview on his bus, said the Gore campaign has gone into hiding amid Bradley's criticism of his abortion record.
''It's a classic PR technique,'' Bradley said. ''Whenever there's bad news, you go into hiding. Or whenever you're confronted with the bad news, you just deny it.''
The former New Jersey senator also questioned whether Gore had the strength to stand up to his counterattack. ''I've seen a lot of guys who gave elbows and couldn't take them,'' he said.
Gore, however, told the Globe that Bradley is practicing ''old politics'' and shrugged off the darts. ''It's probably just a coincidence - the timing of it - coming just before the election,'' Gore said.
The five Republican candidates, meanwhile, crisscrossed the state in a furious round of campaigning.
The Bush campaign, which has often faced media questions about why the candidate's father hasn't turned up here, arranged for many members of the Bush family to accompany the Texas governor yesterday. They were led by the former president.
''Even from far away in Texas, you get the feeling things are moving here and moving well,'' former President Bush said. ''I'm proud to be here, I'm proud of our son ... This boy, this son of ours, is not going to let you down.''
Senator John McCain of Arizona responded by dismissing Bush's ability to get ''celebrity endorsements.''
''The only celebrities I'm interested in are the people in this room and the voters in the state of New Hampshire,'' McCain told an audience at the Windham Middle School.
At town hall meetings in Raymond and Windham, McCain made sure to highlight differences between him and Bush. Bush, he said, would be unable to criticize the vice president on campaign finance as well as he could. He said he could ''beat Al Gore like a drum'' on the issue.
The latest Boston Globe/WBZ-TV tracking poll, meanwhile, reflected a race that remains hotly competitive in both primaries.
Gore continues to hold onto a modest lead over Bradley, but the poll suggests Bradley may have arrested the recent trend in Gore's favor. Gore holds a 48 percent-to-41 percent advantage, with the remainder undecided, according to the poll, which sampled voter opinion Friday and yesterday. The previous day's poll result showed Gore with a 10-point advantage.
The Bush-McCain race remains a statistical deadlock, with McCain up 38 percent to 35 percent. The previous day's poll result had the race even closer, with McCain up a single percentage point.
The other GOP contenders continue to run well behind. Steve Forbes drew 11 percent; Alan Keyes, 5 percent; Gary Bauer, 4 percent; the remainder were undecided.
Based on sampling of 400 likely voters in each party primary, the poll has a margin of error of 5 percent.
Earlier in the week, Bush's appearances were sparsely attended, and the candidate, suffering from a cold, seemed tired. But yesterday, he sounded energized. After receiving a standing ovation at a Portsmouth breakfast from more than 1,000 Republicans - nearly three times the number that showed up at an event in the same restaurant last week - Bush told the crowd: ''This really makes me feel good.''
''I'm excited. I'm excited about our chances,'' he said. ''I like the feel in this state.''
He repeated his vow to cut taxes, raising the central issue in his debate with McCain. But his real target yesterday was Clinton. The State of the Union address, which heralded the explosion of the new economy, was a display of arrogance on Clinton's part, Bush said.
Bush's strategy is to remind Republican primary voters that the goal is to remove the Clinton administration from the White House, and that they thus must vote for the GOP candidate most likely to beat Gore, aides said.
The only negative attack from the Bush campaign yesterday came from Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the head of Bush's campaign in the state.
Gregg criticized a quote in the Manchester Union Leader from McCain's state chairman, Michael Dennehy, who said McCain was going to meet with the voters, not with Republican Party activists.
Gregg, speaking at the Cheshire County Lincoln Day Dinner in Keene, did not mention McCain by name. But he read the quote aloud and called it ''totally inappropriate ... The party is the essence of what makes us a strong, idea-oriented people.''
Steve Forbes, meanwhile, weighed in on the abortion issue as well, saying that both Gore and Bradley should be opposed because they favor abortion rights.
''Clearly, Mr. Gore chose to abandon his compassion for the unborn to climb the greasy pole of liberal Democratic politics,'' Forbes said in Laconia.
The other two GOP candidates, Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes, also campaigned throughout the state.
Bradley, continuing to hammer away at Gore on the abortion issue, circulated letters that Gore wrote to constituents in the 1980s affirming his opposition to abortion and to federal funding for the procedure.
''It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong,'' Gore wrote to a constituent in 1984 when he was representing Tennessee in the House. ''Let me assure you that I share your belief that innocent human life must be protected, and I have an open mind on how to further this goal.''
The Bradley campaign also began airing a television ad that attacked Gore by identifying Bradley as the only candidate among the seven seeking the Democratic and Republican nominations who ''has been prochoice for everyone - all the time.'' The ad is titled, ''Always.''
Bolstering Bradley's charge about Gore and truthfulness, today's New Hampshire Sunday News urges Democrats to vote for Bradley. ''We now believe Al Gore's dishonesty in this campaign makes him an unacceptable choice for Democratic-leaning voters,'' the newspaper says in an editiorial headlined, ''Almost An Endorsement.''
The conservative daily is formally backing Forbes.
Gore, campaigning on the streets of Milford, dismissed complaints that he has been less than candid about his record on the abortion issue.
Asked whether he still believed what he wrote in a 1987 letter to a constituent, that abortion is ''the taking of a human life,'' Gore seemed to choose his words carefully.
''I didn't write that,'' Gore said. ''I used the word `arguably''' before the words the taking of a human life, he said.
''I would not use that phrasing today,'' he added.
In fact, Gore is half right. In a letter written to another constituent in 1984 and released by the Bradley campaign yesterday, Gore indeed said abortion was ''arguably the taking of a human life.''
But Gore also told the constituent, ''It is my deep personal belief that abortion is wrong. I hope some day we will see the ... outrageously large number of abortions drop sharply.''
Asked specifically whether he personally opposed abortion, while believing in a woman's right to have the procedure, Gore skirted the issue.
''I'm not a woman,'' the vice president said yesterday. ''And I believe that it's wrong to have the government arrogate to itself the power to order women to make a decision that politicians decide is correct, regardless of the circumstances faced by that individual woman.
''That's the question that has to be answered. And once you answer that question, then your other question is one that can only be answered by the woman herself,'' he said.
The Globe/WBZ-TV poll suggests that Bradley's assault on Gore over his truthfulness may be having some effect. Likely Democratic voters view Bradley, by 41 percent to 32 percent, as the candidate more generally truthful about his record and in his descriptions of his opponent's.
Those polled were also inclined, by a considerable margin, to hold Gore to account for saying last week to have ''always'' supported abortion rights, even though, early in his political career, he opposed federal funding for abortions. Gore has changed that position and is now a firm backer of abortion rights.
But among likely Democratic voters, 34 percent said that the apparent gap between Gore's claim and his record would make them less likely to vote for Gore. Four percent say it makes them more likely to back Gore. The rest say it will have no effect, or had no response to the question.
Globe Staff writers Susan Milligan, with Gore, Bob Hohler, with Bradley, Anne E. Kornblut, with Bush, and Michael Crowley, with Forbes, contributed to this report.
