HICAGO - With the polls showing a tight election, Vice President Al Gore yesterday said the choice for president will come down to two sides: ''the people'' and ''the powerful.''
Speaking to voters here, the presumed Democratic nominee echoed a popular union song from the Depression with the question: ''Whose side are you on?''
It is a question he asked at yesterday's stops and one that had been on the lips of his campaign staff all week. And it came as he opened fire on his Republican rival - Texas Governor George W. Bush - for planning to spend ''not a single dime'' of a projected trillion-dollar budget surplus on shoring up the Medicare system.
''In this election for president the fundamental question has to do with whose side are you on,'' Gore told a group of senior citizens in suburban Chicago. ''I'm on your side. I want to fight for the people.
''The other side fights for the powerful,'' he said, ''and that is why the big pharmaceutical companies are supporting Governor Bush. That is why big oil companies are supporting Governor Bush. That's why big polluters are supporting Governor Bush. That's why the HMOs and insurance companies are supporting Governor Bush.''
Gore plans to devote $339 billion over 10 years to cover health care for seniors, fund health care providers such as nursing homes and long-term care facilities, extend Medicare's solvency, and add prescription drug coverage to Medicare.
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer called Gore's remarks a sign that the vice president ''is looking over his shoulder at Ralph Nader'' by recasting himself as a ''class warfare warrior.''
''America wants a president who works for the people,'' Fleischer said. ''Not a president who pits people against each other and finger points.''
Gore drew a strong line between his 10-year, $255 billion plan to secure prescription drug benefits for the elderly and Bush's position. With charts and graphs, Gore was in his element in a detailed talk yesterday at a senior center.
The Bush campaign countered with a charge of its own: that the Clinton/Gore administration has failed to work on bipartisan reform of Medicare.
