ULUTH, Minn. - Governor George W. Bush of Texas is fond of saying he will ''bring a new tone'' to politics, but in a way, he is already doing so in the final phase of the campaign.
When Bush lacerates Al Gore, it's with a wink and a grin, like a late-night comedy host poking fun. At a rally here last night, Bush said one of the most ''humorous moments'' of the race was when Al Gore said he favored smaller government.
''I could barely contain myself!'' Bush shouted, drawing howls of laughter from the crowd. ''I knew the man was prone to exaggerations, but this one took the cake!''
Bush's ability to turn the knife while appearing sunny may have helped to shield him from criticism that his campaign has turned negative. But what is perhaps most unexpected - especially five days before a tense election that is still too close to call - is that neither presidential candidate comes across as particularly nasty, despite the deluge of harsh messages flowing from both campaigns.
Gore, who has dispatched dozens of Democrats to assail Bush as too inexperienced to be president, rarely mentions Bush by name. That is left to other voices, prominently Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, his running mate, who warned voters this week to ''stay out of the Bushes,'' or to his spokesman, Chris Lehane, who lingered at the back of a Gore rally on Tuesday to tell reporters that ''George W. Bush is not qualified to be president.''
''What we're seeing is a good cop-bad cop routine with the candidates,'' said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University. ''Bush smiles when he goes on the attack so he doesn't come across as being mean, whereas Gore doesn't have the same subtlety in delivering attacks so it's left to surrogates.''
If there is an arena that could quickly dissolve into a bloodbath, it is the TV ad war, which has heated up considerably this week. On Tuesday, the Bush campaign released an ad ridiculing Gore's capacity to exaggerate.
Gore has said that Bush's $1 trillion proposal to allow younger workers to invest in private savings accounts would come at the expense of the current generation of retirees. But the Bush ad is focused more on Gore's credibility than on responding to questions of how the Republican proposal would pay for itself, giving the Gore campaign a new opportunity to claim the Texas governor has turned toward personal attacks.
''Bush has taken the gloves off,'' said a Democratic political consultant, Dane Strother. Doug Hattaway, a spokesman for the Gore campaign, said the ad was further evidence the Bush ''campaign has been one long personal attack.''
''How can Bush bring civility to Washington when he can't even bring civility to his own faltering campaign?'' said a Gore deputy campaign manager, Mark Fabiani.
Yet if the complaints of the Gore campaign have not taken hold, it may be in part because Bush himself maintains an inoffensive demeanor, never straying far from his trademark grin as he skewers Gore for everything from his childhood in Washington to alleged campaign fund-raising improprieties and the impeachment of President Clinton.
Additionally, a pillar of the Bush stump speech, indeed, a pillar of his entire candidacy, has been his relentlessly positive images - his promises to ''unite, not divide'' in order to ''lift this nation's spirit'' for all the ''loving citizens of America'' who make up the ''great fabric'' of the ''greatest country on the face of the Earth.''
His folksy oratory lends an element of charm even to the most direct assault on Gore. Undercutting Gore's mantra of ''you ain't seen nothing yet,'' Bush frequently replies: ''He's right! We ain't seen nothin' yet!'' The slang rolls easily off his tongue - sometimes more easily than it does Gore's.
Bush aides are unapologetic about his carefully scripted punches, although they believe it is Gore who has adopted a negative tone.
But Gore has avoided throwing the most damaging blows himself, mildly referring to the Texas governor as ''my opponent'' and ''the governor.'' Reminding listeners of his pledge to run a ''positive campaign,'' the vice president sometimes uses the words of others to get his point across, as he did during a speech in Portland, Ore., the other night.
''Senator McCain said it best when he raised concerns about the governor's plan during the primaries: I don't think Bill Gates needs a tax cut, but I think you and your parents do,'' Gore said, referring to Bush's proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut, a focal point of debate in the campaign.
Gore's surrogates take a much more abrasive tone.
''I don't think Governor Bush is ready - based on his experience, his record, his proposals in this campaign - to be the kind of president that the American people need at this point in our history,'' Lieberman said on a network show Sunday. He repeated the criticism throughout the week, but Gore declined to join in, even when prodded by reporters. Asked whether he agreed not only with Lieberman but also with a New York Times editorial that said Bush is not ready to be president, Gore tap-danced, replying: ''I haven't said that I believe it, because I don't think it's my place to say that I believe it.''
As the campaign headed into its final 100 hours, the Gore campaign did not rule out changing strategy, but was aware of the risk already taken by Bush: That going negative can appear desperate, a sign the candidate is losing.
There was just one candidate who appeared to have nothing to fear from going negative: Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate who stands, at best, at 7 percent in the polls. Which perhaps explains his double-whammy over the weekend. ''If Gore cannot beat the bumbling Texas governor, with that horrific record, what good is he?'' Nader said on NBC. ''What good is he? Good heavens, this should be a slam dunk!''
