As this presidential campaign ripens into an increasingly personal contest, Gore, a deft linguist who rarely tosses words around carelessly or accidentally, appears to be going after a two-for-one deal: Hammer at Bush's agenda in a way that imprints on his public image as well.

An easy enough recipe, said City University of New York political scientist and psychoanalyst Stanley Renshon, who said Gore was essentially waging "a bootleg character attack."

"You take a policy difference, then you attach a word to it that describes the worst possible personality trait. Lo and behold you have a policy difference with a character attack," Renshon said.

Or, as one Democratic strategist allied with the Gore campaign described it: The more often you can say "smug" next to the words "George W. Bush," the more likely it is that that impression will stick with voters.

Bush's rhetoric, by contrast, is more direct and he rarely mentions Gore in policy addresses. A staple of his stump speech is "restoring honor and integrity" to the White House, and a standard defense against criticism from Gore is, "This is a man who will say anything to get elected."

But there is ample evidence, pollsters say, that Gore is mining fertile territory in public opinion.

Democratic pollster Peter Hart, in a focus group of Pennsylvanians this week, said the only thing the diverse group agreed on was, if offered a call-a-candidate lifeline on TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" quiz show, they would pick Gore or Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan -- not Bush.

And after Americans gained more exposure to Bush during the Republican primaries, independent pollster Andrew Kohut said, respondents to his monthly survey began offering "cocky," "arrogant" and "inexperienced" when asked for one-word impressions of Bush.

"It's not surprising (Gore) would go after this and use this as a basis for feeding on concerns about Bush," said Kohut. "There's an obvious wound there, and the Gore people want to make it bigger."

Senior Gore adviser Bob Shrum countered: "That's not what this is about. This is about the whole underlying assumption of the Bush issues strategy that he can say, 'I care about education, I care about health care and smugly assume people don't need to know what that means or what's behind it."'

Deliberate in its double meanings or not, Gore began employing the new rhetoric in just the past two weeks, after Bush laid out education, health, housing and environmental proposals signaling a fierce battle for moderate and independent voters.

Reading a statement to reporters in Michigan on April 21, Gore said, "You know, Governor Bush seems to have the smug assumption that he can get away with calling himself an environmentalist in spite of the record."

Gore told New Jersey union members Wednesday that Bush was operating under "the smug assumption" that he can win the presidency without detailing his plans for Social Security.

And on Tuesday in Atlanta, he said concerning his rival, "That is an arrogant approach to say let's privatize Social Security, but you don't need to go into any details. That's arrogant."

At other points in between, Gore dismissed Bush's foreign policy as "noticeably blank" and summed up his economic agenda as "irresponsibility and risk."

Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane is even less subtle, cracking that a pile of Bush budget documents looked awfully heavy "for a lightweight." In a news release Wednesday, Lehane poked at the Bush camp for likening Social Security to pensions.

"Luckily, Franklin Roosevelt understood the difference. Al Gore certainly understands the difference. It seems that George W. Bush's campaign is a bit confused," Lehane said.

It's name-calling, said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. "And it's one more example of what's wrong with the way the vice president conducts his business."

Another Bush aide pointed to signs in the latest round of national polls that Gore's "unfavorable" rating is on the rise.

Kohut and Renshon agreed Gore could suffer a public-opinion backlash. "The danger for Gore here is that it reinforces one of his most undesirable qualities, which is his tendency to be harsh," said Renshon.

Said Kohut, "This is a moderate time and people themselves aren't angry. Candidates who point the finger too much are not going to succeed."