ANCHESTER, N.H. - Publisher Steve Forbes, lambasting George W. Bush at nearly every turn, yesterday chided the Texas governor for his unwillingess to say more about his past personal problems other than that he was ''young and irresponsible.''
The morning after he seized every chance he could to jab Bush in the Republican presidential debate, Forbes wasted no time shifting his focus from Bush's policies to his personal life.
The billionaire candidate pursued the potentially risky course as he scrambles to gain ground on Bush, the national front-runner, and Arizona Senator John McCain in the race for the GOP nomination.
''At least you knew what I was doing in my youth,'' Forbes said at a news conference in Manchester. ''I was writing magazine columns. Others haven't been so forthcoming about what they were doing 25 years ago.''
Asked to elaborate, Forbes identified a rival who ''wants to be a compassionate conservative,'' a clear reference to Bush, and criticized candidates ''who haven't been willing to answer certain questions about what they were doing'' in the past.
Bush, who has declined to answer specific questions about whether he abused alcohol or drugs in his past, had stung Forbes Thursday night by quoting a Forbes magazine article Forbes wrote in 1977 proposing a possible increase in the eligibility age for Social Security. Bush had cited the Forbes proposal after Forbes attacked him for recently floating the same idea.
''When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible,'' Forbes said yesterday, borrowing Bush's line about his past, though Forbes was referring to the Social Security issue.
''But unlike some,'' Forbes added, ''I grew from that initial position, and some are still stuck in it.''
Forbes also denigrated Bush's debate performance, asserting that the audience learned little more from him than that he is governor of Texas, Texas is the second-largest state, and Texas, in Bush's words, has ''the 11th-largest economy in the world.''
''Beyond that,'' Forbes said, ''one was hard put to find a lot of views.''
Forbes, who was criticized in 1996 for his multimillion-dollar negative ad campaign, could face a backlash if voters begin to view his attacks on Bush as unfair, extreme, or potentially harmful to the eventual Republican nominee.
But Forbes showed no signs of concern yesterday. Instead, he seemed ebullient over capturing the endorsement of The Union Leader, New Hampshire's largest newspaper. With the endorsement in large type on the paper's front page, Forbes hoisted a copy for photographers and said he was honored to be supported by ''the foremost paper in New Hampshire, New England and, in my mind, now America.''
The Union Leader, which is influential among the state's conservative voters, backed the winner of the 1996 Republican primary, Patrick J. Buchanan. But the paper's endorsement has not always guaranteed victory.
Still, Forbes said the paper's backing boosted his credibility. ''As the kids would say, I am pumped,'' he said.
Forbes then launched a three-day barnstorming tour of the state by bus, stopping first at a bakery in Amherst. Saying he was worried about his waistline, he turned down a patron's offer to share her sticky bun.
Instead, he opted for an interview with a reporter for a local weekly newspaper in which he discussed his upbringing and child-rearing, and mourned the decline of social decorum. In particular, Forbes expressed remorse for the loss of ''the old sense among young people of romance.''
''On the topic of sex, there is no sense of decorum or dignity,'' he said. ''It's just pushing the envelope as much as you can push it and seeing what you can get away with.''
Forbes, who focused largely on his proposal for a flat tax when he ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 1996, has fashioned himself as a champion of social conservatism. Asked whom he most admired, he began a short list by citing Jesus Christ.
