ANCHESTER, N.H. - They are alike in many ways: moderates in their party, experts in policy arcana, brainy men who often struggle to inspire when they rise to speak. But tonight, in their own version of a World Series, Al Gore and Bill Bradley will use a precious hour of national television airtime to present themselves as very different types of Democrats.
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The one-hour forum at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., is the first debate of the Democratic presidential campaign. Both candidates Gore and Bradley will be answering questions from the audience.
 Who: Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.
Where: Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
When: 8 p.m.-9 p.m. EDT
Coverage: Televised live by CNN and WMUR-TV; video-streamed live on CNN.com, as well as on WMUR-TV's Web site, wmur.com.
Sponsors: CNN and WMUR-TV.
Moderators: CNN's Bernard Shaw, WMUR news director Karen Brown.
DEBATE NOTEBOOK
Clash of signs, supporters take over Dartmouth
Six-year-old Nikkita Gottling may not know what Al Gore does for a living, but she knew enough to be in the right place at the right time.
Gore, Bradley campaign before tonight's event
HANOVER, N.H. - Al Gore and Bill Bradley got in some campaigning before their debate tonight.
Today, Bradley took a tour of Main Street on the campus, followed by dozens of journalists and supporters.
Gore shook hands at the same spot later in the day, stopping to read to children at a local bookstore.
Bradley's chanting supporters drowned out Gore backers during both strolls.
Gore has watched a commanding lead in the polls get narrower in the face of Bradley's strong campaign. In fact, the former New Jersey senator is rated even or slightly ahead in New Hampshire, the site of the nation's first primary. (AP)
Bradley, Gore face off in
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In what many New Hampshirites view as an opening of the presidential campaign, the two Democrats - followed tomorrow by all the Republican candidates except George W. Bush - are joining in a town meeting on the campus of Dartmouth College. Tonight's event, to be broadcast on CNN and WMUR-TV, occurs as the two Democrats are locked in a statistical tie in numerous polls in New Hampshire, which historically has an outsized impact on the national race.
But for many New Hampshire voters, the Democratic race is between a vaguely known vice president and a former senator still known largely for his basketball days with the New York Knicks.
''I don't get the sense that voters are really able to distinguish between the two yet, on things like education and social policy,'' said Dean Spiliotes, professor of government at Dartmouth College. ''Because there are just two of them, there is a lot more opportunity for clash and conflict.''
The two candidates are aiming to win over voters such as Angela Silva, 33. She happened to run into Gore on Monday, while he was handing out campaign information on Nashua's Lynwood Street, and quizzed him about a variety of social programs. While impressed with Gore, she said she didn't know enough about Bradley.
''I haven't really met him yet,'' Silva said of Bradley, in a statement emblematic of the New Hampshire one-on-one political tradition. But because the candidates can't hope to meet every voter, they view televised events such as the one airing tonight as crucial toward introducing them to a broader audience.
Unfortunately for the candidates, however, tonight's 8 p.m. start puts the forum in direct conflict with Game Four of the World Series. Even the state's Democratic Party chairman, Kathy Sullivan, who plans to watch the forum ''in an easy chair with a beer,'' acknowledges that a second television set in her home will be tuned into baseball.
While the forum is not a debate, it could easily turn into one. Under the rules, each candidate will be given 90 seconds to respond to questions from the audience, and it is possible that they will engage one another throughout the event.
Gore, according to his aides, will present himself as a Democrat who backs significant changes in areas such as education, health care, and the environment. Bradley, meanwhile, is expected to elaborate on his positions on health care, handgun registration, and race relations and argue that Gore is too timid to address the nation's major challenges.
Bradley officials said yesterday that they were preparing for the event by trying to anticipate possible lines of attack by Gore. And the former senator has hinted that he is prepared to respond aggressively. He recently said he could only take so many ''elbows'' before he will throw one himself.
''Senator Bradley is prepared for anything else that may come up,'' said Anita Dunn, his communications director.
Bradley practiced this week with Dunn's husband, Bob Bauer, a Washington lawyer, posing as the vice president, according to one source. The Bradley campaign refused to confirm or deny Bauer's participation and made light of any effort to get ready for tonight's meeting.
''He's been answering questions from people for the last ten-and-a-half months,'' said Dunn. ''This is not new for him. He'll be prepared.''
Gore, on the other hand, holed up at the Wayfarer Inn in Bedford, with a team of Washington and New Hampshire advisers, including Senator Caroline McCarley, his political director, Nick Baldick, his state director, and Douglas Hattaway, his state spokesman. The group fired questions at Gore on local issues such as the White Mountain National Forest, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and special education.
The contrasting styles of the two candidates were on display yesterday, as Gore campaigned in Concord and Bradley brought his caravan to Claremont.
Gore attended an antidrug rally at the State House, urging children not to try drugs. Bradley appeared with 89-year-old Doris Haddock, also known as Granny D, to press for campaign-finance overhaul. Haddock has been walking 10 miles a day across the country to convince Congress that people do care about how elections are funded.
Bradley said that although the public does not consider campaign-finance overhaul as important as health care or good jobs, special-interest groups prevent progress in many areas.
''You have to realize how it's related to achieving all of those things,'' he said. ''If Granny D can walk across America, we ought to be able to have a clean campaign-financing system.''
On Monday night, Gore warmed up for tonight's event by holding a two-hour town meeting at Fairgrounds Junior High School in Nashua, during which the vice president displayed an intricate knowledge of New Hampshire and the issues affecting the state, such as the impact of the F-22 jet on a local company and the number of students at an overcrowded high school. He constantly joked with the audience, at one point urging a student to give an example of how to ''dis'' someone.
Gore rarely seemed rattled, although he did mistakenly refer to the late Senator Barry Goldwater as being alive.
''I agree with him more and more as he moves to the center these days,'' Gore said of Goldwater. Gore never mentioned Bradley's name throughout the event, and only referred to having a Democratic opponent in the last couple of minutes.
After the microphones were turned off, Gore stayed to talk privately with the voters for another hour. A line stretched from one end of the room to the other as Gore patiently spoke with every person until there were no more people to talk to.
Though Gore's voice was hoarse and his black shirt damp with sweat, the effort appeared to be paying off, voter by voter.
Julianne Noonan, a nurse in the intensive care unit at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, walked into the room leaning toward Bradley. To her, the vice president never really stood out.
But after listening to Gore, Noonan, an independent voter, said she was seriously considering voting for him. ''He has a whole lot of compassion, a whole lot of heart,'' she said. ''You just didn't see that when he was vice president because President Clinton did all the talking.''
For Gore, what was supposed to have been a cakewalk to the nomination has turned into a battle against Bradley. After cutting staff, moving his campaign to Nashville, and rededicating himself to being a candidate rather than a vice president, Gore is seeking in New Hampshire to regain his momentum. Gore has been taking Bradley to task on the issues, such as health care.
Bradley, on the other hand, has continued his methodical approach to running for president. His campaign began canvassing the state over the summer, and officials estimate that volunteers have hit 60,000 homes since then. Though he has continued to rise in the polls here, he seems neither to be increasing his visits, nor decreasing them. His message - mostly biographical, but also revolving around a few themes that he calls ''big ideas'' - is constant.
