AMPA - With a final reminder from the Rev. Billy Graham that the outcome depends on ''God's will,'' George W. Bush took a triumphant swing through Florida yesterday, exuding extraordinary confidence less than 48 hours before the election despite signs the state is leaning toward Al Gore.
The Texas governor gave every indication he expects to win the national race, and aides predicted he would fare even better than suggested in several national polls, which give Bush a slight edge. As a symbol of his determination, Bush announced he would complete his year-long bid to claim the White House with a final rally tonight in Arkansas, the home state of President Clinton.
''Two days, folks!'' Bush told a cheering crowd in West Palm Beach, where he traveled yesterday morning with his brother, Jeb, the Florida governor. ''Two days!''
The journey through Florida, planned around a string of 15-minute rallies filled with fireworks and blaring Latin music, gave Republicans one last chance to forecast a Bush win in the key battleground state. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani appealed to former New Yorkers with an appearance on stage with Bush, and the candidate's brother said he was ''very confident'' in the outcome after reviewing internal polls that show Bush ahead.
But the spotlight on Florida seemed like a sideshow in the final hours of a race that aides predicted could turn on a combination of swing states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Oregon. With even the vice president's native Tennessee in play, Bush appeared almost gleeful, an excitement that was reflected in the festive atmosphere of his campaign.
Aboard the campaign plane, media adviser Mark McKinnon videotaped staff members as they boarded for the second-to-last day of campaigning, with senior strategist Karl Rove donning a joke baseball jersey belonging to the press - with the words ''Major League A's'' on the front, a reference to the vulgar comment Bush once made about a New York Times reporter. Later, Bush took the wheel of his parked campaign bus to honk at reporters and, grinning, flash his trademark three fingers - in the shape of the letter ''W'' - before speaking to thousands gathered at a football field at Florida International University in Miami.
Although he kept his remarks brief, Bush deviated from the normal stump speech to address the crowd in Spanish, repeating a joke coined in the final weeks of the race: If Gore invented the Internet, Bush asked, then why do all the Web addresses begin with the letter ''Doble-V''?
''Not one doble-ve,'' he said in Spanish, ''but tres doble-ves!''
The playful tone of the day marked a turn in a campaign that until recently had focused on disparaging Gore, not just for his policies but also his personality and his tendency to exaggerate. That Bush had somewhat toned down his attack suggested the race had moved into a phase where the campaign believed it had done all it could do.
It also indicated Bush was no longer worried about the effect of the revelation late last week of his 1976 drunken-driving arrest, which he did not disclose until it was discovered by a TV reporter in Maine. New polls suggested that fewer than 10 percent of voters cared about the arrest, or Bush's decision to keep it under wraps.
Still, Bush made a brief attempt to persuade seniors, a powerful voting bloc in Florida, to ignore the vice president's renewed attacks on his Social Security proposal, which would allow younger workers to invest 2 percent of the payroll tax in a personal savings account.
Gore has warned that such privatization would jeopardize benefits for the current generation of retirees, and has flooded the state with ads to that effect. In response, Bush made the theme of yesterday ''Saving Social Security'' - although he mentioned it only in passing, and his aides barely pretended the central focus was anything other than projecting a winning look.
''They can try to scare, they can make all those ugly phone calls and fake TV ads,'' Bush said in defense of his program. ''But we have a chance on November 7 to purge this country of old-style politics, the old way of politics.''
In response to the unexpected inroads his opponent made in Florida, Bush spent two consecutive nights in the state, whose 25 electoral votes have the potential to break a national deadlock. While many political strategists believe Bush cannot win the election without Florida - and no Republican has done so since Calvin Coolidge in 1924 - the campaign did not appear troubled by his tough fight here.
A number of scenarios would allow for a Bush victory without Florida, Bush aides said. A combination, for example, of Oregon, Iowa, and Missouri would bring an equal number of Electoral College votes; and in this unpredictable a year, as the polls have swung in both directions, Bush aides believe anything could happen.
''There are lots of different ways for us to get to 270 [electoral votes] because we have a large, bigger base, so the hypotheticals are not worth worrying about,'' Rove said.
According to Graham, the evangelical minister and longtime friend of the Bush family, the Texas governor will also have benefited from a higher power if he prevails on Nov. 7. Graham, who helped inspire Bush to quit drinking, said he had been ''praying for this crucial election.''
''I've been praying that God's will shall be done,'' Graham said. ''I don't endorse candidates, but I've come as close to it, I guess, now as any time in my life, because I think it's extremely important.''
Referring to Bush and his wife, Laura, Graham concluded: ''And if they, by God's will, win, I'm going to do everything in my power to help them make it a successful presidency.''
Before breakfast, Bush attended a private church service at Old St. Andrews Episcopal Church. The Rev. Gretchen van Aken told the Republican candidate after the service to ''remember the Lord himself chooses the right man.''
