OLINE, Ill. - The crowds are thicker and rowdier, the poll numbers are up, and Al Gore, his determined voice raspy from frenetic campaigning, is displaying a confidence and fieriness he hasn't shown since the hard-fought Democratic primary.
The Gore campaign, at long last, appears to be gaining momentum, heading into what campaign aides say will be a consistently tight race until Election Day.
Rallies of up to 5,000 people - far more than the vice president was drawing before the Democratic National Convention - have greeted Al and Tipper Gore as the couple stopped at small towns along the Mississippi River on a riverboat campaign cruise. Some Illinois and Iowa residents lined up along the riverbank late Saturday night to watch the Mark Twain float by, prompting the Gores, who had been celebrating Mrs. Gore's 52d birthday, to stop the boat, pull out a bullhorn, and address them.
The vice president has been unusually relaxed with reporters and visibly energized by screaming partisans - some of whom donned party hats and waited four hours Saturday evening to wish Mrs. Gore a happy birthday. The Clinton, Iowa, ralliers were still partying after midnight, as the Gores delighted the crowd by dancing onstage, confetti falling around them.
''Go, Al. Go!'' the ralliers screamed, crammed against one another as they strained to get a handshake from the ebullient vice president.
''I'm feeling good about the enthusiasm of the crowds,'' Gore said yesterday as he left The Boathouse restaurant in Davenport, Iowa. ''I'm not an expert as to what to make of it, but I'm feeling good.''
A CNN poll yesterday had Gore in a statistical tie with his opponent, Republican George W. Bush, holding 47 percent to Bush's 46 percent in a four-way race including consumer advocate Ralph Nader and Reform Party candidate Patrick J. Buchanan. The margin of error was 4 percentage points. The survey is in line with other recent polls that show the race neck and neck, with Gore often slightly ahead.
Gore had been lagging by as many as 19 points behind Bush earlier this month.
But the past two weeks have marked a turning point for the Democratic ticket, starting with the announcement of centrist Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut as Gore's running mate and continuing with the vice president's convention address and riverboat campaign trip.
''We're taking all the polls numbers the same way we did a few weeks ago, with a studied nonchalance,'' said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. But ''clearly, there is something going on in this race.''
Part of it, said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, is the symbolic departure of President Clinton from the campaign stage.
''The hardest job in American politics is getting out of the shadow of the president,'' Durbin said in an interview. But ''Democrats are now thinking beyond the Clinton presidency,'' he said.
Gore is sounding more and more like Clinton on the campaign trail, hammering away on the voter-pleasing issues of health care and coverage of prescription drugs for seniors. He engages his listeners like a talk-show host, telling sad tales of children who aren't getting an adequate education and seniors who aren't receiving medical care.
Gore allows that his Republican opponents are ''decent,'' and makes a villain of the pharmaceutical, oil, tobacco, and insurance companies, which he says are making huge profits at the people's expense.
''They have a lot of political power, but you've got the votes,'' Gore told an enthusiastic crowd in Muscatine, Iowa, yesterday. It is a populist message that plays well in the region.
''I like Al Gore,'' said Dawn Greer, 32, who said her mother died in Texas after failing to find a doctor who would treat her for cash. Greer blames Bush, the governor of Texas, in part, for her mother's death.
''If that's the way George Bush runs his own state, I don't want him running the country. It will be somebody else's mother next,'' Greer said.
No longer standing stiff, Gore now paces the stage when he woos a crowd, waving his arms for emphasis.
Even Gore's voice is starting to sound like the president's, hoarse from long, event-filled days on the campaign trail.
''I know people say I'm too specific,'' Gore told a crowd of about 2,000 in the small town of Bellevue, Iowa, on Saturday. But, he added, ''do you want the facts?''
''Yeah!'' the crowd yelled back. ''All right, then,'' Gore continued, now holding the attention of the crowd as he launched into a detailed description of his plans for Social Security, the Patients' Bill of Rights, and cleaning up the environment.
''Someone just said, `Give 'em hell, Al,' and I'm going to give the same response Harry Truman did,'' Gore told the Bellevue crowd. ''I'm going to tell the truth and they're going to think it's hell.''
The vice president has turned his stiff image into a kind of geek chic, making self-deprecating comments about his lack of charisma and subtly suggesting in the process that his opponent lacks substance.
''I know that I might not always be the most exciting politician,'' Gore told a boisterous gathering of about 5,000 people in Moline yesterday. ''But I will work hard for you and I will never let you down.''
The approach makes sense, said Stephen Hess, an analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution. ''You're not going to make him into Bill Clinton. He might as well do what he does best. To say, I am what I am: I'm not a matinee idol, but I'm a good issues guy,'' Hess said.
''They talk about him not being a good speaker,'' said Pat Yancick, a 62-year-old realtor, as she eagerly awaited Gore's arrival in Moline yesterday.
''I don't want someone who talks a good story,'' Yancick said. ''I want someone like Al Gore who will do a good job.''
Despite their apparent momentum, Gore and Lieberman have a hard task ahead of them. They lag in the polls in the South, and the contest appears to be close in the industrial Midwest, a region critical to the Democrats if they are to win.
The vice president has been choosing his words carefully in the region and targeting his message to appeal to the conservative, middle-America crowds.
Gore glosses over what was once a central part of his stump speech - the success of the current economy - instead telling residents of this less-economically booming region that he is ''not satisfied.''
''Don't believe that the economy is so strong that people aren't working harder,'' Gore told supporters in Clinton on Saturday night. ''Don't tell me there aren't families out there having challenges, having trouble meeting house payments.''
The vice president, however, does not mention such goals as gay and abortion rights, both sensitive issues in this region.
''The vice president's commitment to choice is well documented,'' Lehane said. ''I'm sure it will be mentioned on the campaign trail,'' he said, but he would not say whether Gore would discuss abortion before Midwestern voters.
''George Bush isn't going to talk about those issues either,'' Durbin said. ''What you need to do [in the Midwest] is to talk about mainstream, family room issues.''
