HICAGO - George W. Bush said yesterday that ''America better beware of a candidate who is willing to stretch reality in order to win points.'' It was his response to Al Gore's folksy story about his family's prescription drug expenses that was actually based on a congressional cost analysis.
The vice president's campaign countered by saying that his mother-in-law and dog have prescriptions for the same arthritis medication, which is what Gore told an audience of senior citizens last month. But the campaign did not give the costs of the prescriptions, which could be used to determine the veracity of Gore's assertion that his mother-in-law's medicine cost nearly three times as much as his dog's.
Instead, the campaign continued to rely on cost figures included in a recent House Democratic study, which Gore did not mention as he complained about his family's experience during a campaign stop in Tallahassee, Fla., last month.
The Bush campaign seized upon the issue after the Globe published a story challenging Gore's statements. It characterized the story as documenting another in a line of Gore misstatements that include his assertion he ''took the initiative in creating the Internet'' and served as the model for Erich Segal's novel ''Love Story.''
In an interview aboard his campaign plane, Bush said:
''Here's the point I'd like to make: This is a very emotional issue. The country needs an honest dialogue without exaggerations. I have always been concerned about Vice President Gore's willingness to exaggerate in order to become elected. He's exaggerated about my record for a long period of time. Now he's exaggerating about family members of his, in order to make a point on a very highly charged, very emotional issue. This is not what a leader does. A leader doesn't try to exaggerate in order to win.''
Asked what that said about Gore, Bush added, ''It says that the man will do what it takes to win and America better beware of a candidate who is willing to stretch reality in order to win points.''
Bush's running made, Dick Cheney, also weighed in while campaigning in Seattle.
''I think this is disturbing, in the sense that it looks like another Al Gore invention,'' Cheney said. ''The unfortunate part of this is that it deals with a very serious problem, the issue of how we deliver prescription drugs to our seniors. It strikes me that this was the kind of statement we have heard in the past from Al Gore and, frankly, I would expect better from the vice president.''
In an attempt to illustrate the high cost of some prescription drugs, Gore told an audience of senior citizens on Aug. 28 that his mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Aitcheson, pays nearly three times as much for the same medicine that he gives to his 14-year-old Labrador retriever, Shiloh.
He said her bill for the drug, Lodine, is $108; the bill for the dog's medication is $37.80.
''That's pretty bad when you have got to pretend to be a dog or a cat to get a price break,'' the vice president said.
When Gore's aides were initially asked about the story, they could not say if the two took the brand-name version of the drug or its less expensive generic alternative. Two aides then said the campaign took the costs not from family bills but from a House Democratic study of drug prices. They also said Gore misused the numbers, quoting the wholesale price for Lodine, not the retail price.
Gore spokeswoman Kym Spell said that both Aitcheson and Shiloh have prescriptions for brand-name Lodine, although the dog's is for the animal version, called Etogesic. Spell, however, could not say how much the family paid for them, and instead she relied on the cost estimates in the House study. She did not respond to a request for a copy of the drug bills.
Gore's chief spokesman, Chris Lehane, made light of the story. The vice president was not available to reporters as he traveled to Las Vegas.
''The Bush campaign, which is rattled by rats and mired in mispronunciations, has now gone to the dogs. They should stop whimpering and whining, and tell the American people why they're not offering them real prescription drug benefits,'' Lehane said.
