ASHUA, N.H. - From New York to Nashua, Bill Bradley and Al Gore battled over health care, campaign finance and gays in the military yesterday, with each candidate aggressively taking on the other.
Campaigning in vote-rich southern New Hampshire, Gore told a group of local doctors, patients, and health-care providers that he would never criticize Bradley personally, but that his health-care plan falls short of what the American people deserve. ''He's a good man,'' Gore said. ''He's a good man with a bad plan.''
On the set of ''Good Morning America, '' Bradley said Gore has been misrepresenting his proposal to replace Medicaid with subsidies for private insurance. ''People are fed up with politicians who know the truth but only tell a part of it,'' he said.
Last night, during a town hall meeting sponsored by WNDS-TV in Derry, Gore said doctors should have the ability to prescribe marijuana for patients who are in pain, the way his sister, Nancy, was when she was dying of lung cancer in 1984.
In response to a voter's question, Gore said he does not favor legalizing marijuana, but he said it should be available in certain instances.
Between 1984 and 1992 it was legal in Tennessee for doctors to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic purposes, Gore said.
Bradley, meanwhile, is spending his week talking about the need for campaign-finance reform and questioning the vice president's commitment to overhauling the law. Tomorrow, Bradley and Republican Senator John McCain will meet in Claremont to re-create the famous handshake between President Clinton and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich agreeing to support a ban on soft money in elections. (No such ban has been enacted.)
In a speech at Fordham University yesterday, Bradley said Gore ''is wedded to the ways of Washington. He talks about his support for reform, but does little to advance it. On the campaign trail he pays lip service to reform, but that's all he pays.''
Chris Lehane, Gore's press secretary, said it is Bradley who is a latecomer to the subject.
''The fact is Bill Bradley waited 6,219 days after joining the Senate to author a campaign finance reform bill,'' Lehane said. ''Compare that to Al Gore who was elected in 1978 and by 1979 was co-sponsoring legislation on campaign finance reform.''
This week marks a turning point for Bradley's campaign. After being pounded by Gore and his surrogates on the issues for more than a month, Bradley is beginning to fight back.
On Sunday, Bradley said it is ''dismaying'' to see Gore question his commitment to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He said Gore is only interested in tinkering around the edges of big problems, instead of tackling them head-on.
And for the first time, Bradley's campaign has begun issuing critiques of Gore to the press, tagging him on campaign finance, off-shore drilling and his ''lack of leadership'' on fighting for the right of gays to serve in the military.
In a statement yesterday, Bradley's spokesman, Eric Hauser, said Gore decided to abandon the administration's ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy on gays in the armed services because of political rather than principled considerations.
''If his opposition were so strong, why did he wait until December to declare publicly that his views had changed?'' Hauser asked.
When asked about the Bradley campaign's criticism that he did not show leadership on the subject, Gore said, ''Actually, I've held that view for a long time.''
In Boston yesterday, Bradley relied on political allies to underscore his criticisms of Gore as a latecomer to campaign finance reform and as untruthful in his attacks on Bradley's health plan.
''I think that Gore is certainly misrepresenting Bill Bradley's health-care plan,'' said Jim Shannon, the former Massachusetts congressman and a co-chairman for Bradley in the Commonwealth.
''Gore has clearly made a decision,'' said George Miller, the California congressman. ''He is going to try to scare people, and he is going to deliberately misrepresent Bradley's plan. That's a cornerstone of their campaign.''
Yvonne Abraham of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
