HICAGO - The presidential candidates headed into the final 100 hours of the campaign with George W. Bush continuing to criticize Al Gore's background and policies, while the vice president began what aides label his ''closing argument'' to the American people.
Though media attention shifted last night to reports that Bush was arrested in Maine in 1976 for drunken driving, the candidates on the stump tried to hammer home the themes they have been stressing for weeks.
Gore, in speeches yesterday at a Pennsylvania junior college and before thousands in a plaza near Chicago's City Hall, promoted middle-class tax cuts, prescription drug coverage, school improvements, and debt reduction. Yet he devoted even more time to painting a dark portrait of life if the Republican nominee wins the election.
In recent days, that has included raising fears about Bush appointing Supreme Court justices and working in tandem with a Republican-controlled Congress.
''What do we want to do with our prosperity?'' Gore asked his audience in the Mello Theater at Lackawanna Junior College in Scranton, Pa. ''I want to put it to work for the hard-working families of this country, and make sure you get your fair share of the pie. He wants to go back. Do you want to go back to the way it was eight years ago?''
In Chicago, a similar remark drew boos, prompting Gore to say, ''That's my reaction, also.''
Gore warned that Bush's proposed $1.3 trillion tax cut would benefit the ''wealthiest of the wealthy'' and create budget deficits. ''Been there, done that, still paying the bill,'' he said in Pennsylvania.
The Texas governor's proposal to let younger workers invest a portion of their retirement taxes, he said, ''could bankrupt Social Security in 20 years.''
Time and again, Gore also cast Bush as a front man for special interest groups, while portraying himself as protector of the common man.
''If you want someone who smiles and looks the other way while special interests have their way at your expense, then I am not your guy,'' the vice president said. ''But if you want someone who knows how to fight for your interests and has the experience to win those battles on your behalf, and who'll fight with all his heart for you, no matter who stands in your way, then I ask for your support.''
Bush, meanwhile, sought votes in tightly contested Midwestern states, ridiculing his opponent for being ''raised in a hotel in Washington'' and accusing him of supporting a nationalized health care system.
Campaigning in a St. Louis suburb, the Texas governor said it was time to end the era of ''bitterness and acrimony and finger-pointing and no results'' by electing him president.
One of the greatest disappointments of the Clinton-Gore administration, Bush said, was its failure to fix health care. And he said the vice president's current proposals are no better, paving the way for a disastrous national health care bureaucracy like the one Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed in 1993.
''He says he's for a step-by-step plan for universal coverage. No, folks,'' Bush said. ''He's for a hop, skip and a jump to nationalized health care. He thought `Hillarycare' made a lot of sense. We think differently. He trusts government. We trust the people.''
Bush made his case before a crowd at the St. Charles Family Arena that was subdued by recent standards, clapping politely as he trotted out punchlines that normally draw standing ovations and wild cheers these days. The pace did not pick up until midafternoon, when Bush was greeted by an energized crowd of thousands at DuPage Community College in the most conservative county in Illinois.
Bush went on to Milwaukee last night, but by then, the report of his arrest in 1976 had become the news of the day, forcing Bush to respond to the allegations after a rally there.
With the presidential race knotted, both Bush and Gore have sought to break the contest open with a final spate of negative TV ads. Bush's question the vice president's credibility, and Gore's challenge the Texas governor's political experience.
On the ground, the campaigns also are becoming more aggressive, with Bush hammering away at his favorite themes about the vice president. Casting Gore as an insider who ''wants to grow the federal government,'' Bush blamed his opponent for an array of social ills: an achievement gap in education, rising energy prices, burdensome tax rates, sunken morale in the military.
Bush was especially critical of Gore on the issue of health care, and their opposing plans for Medicare. Saying the health program ''should no longer be a political issue,'' Bush challenged voters to ''quit all the talk and elect a president to bring people together and fix Medicare once and for all.'' But then he took a few partisan shots at Gore.
''This is a man who wants the federal government to be making the decisions on behalf of the American people,'' Bush said. ''We trust doctors, and patients, and people.''
Repeating the line as it related to various federal programs, Bush accidentally overshot his mark at one point. Uttering what has become known on the campaign as a ''Bushism,'' the Texas governor said his opponents do not want to privatize the federal Social Security system because ''they want the federal government controlling Social Security, like it's some kind of federal program.''
Despite a spate of national polls that indicate Bush has a slight edge, there was still tension in the campaign, with aides insisting they were ''not complacent'' and the Texas governor was not inaccessible to reporters.
Just how narrowly the race is focused on a few intense battlegrounds was illustrated as Bush's campaign plane flew into the St. Louis airport and parked alongside the campaign plane of Senator Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate. As the two candidate's motorcades pulled alongside each other, Bush reportedly gave the Democratic crew a thumbs-up - his daily gesture to signify his confidence he will win.
Bush then flew to Chicago to campaign in the heavily Republican suburbs, nearly crossing paths with Gore and his rally in downtown Chicago.
While the Democratic and Republican candidates crisscrossed the Midwest, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader campaigned in the West and continued to resist calls to withdraw from the race.
In recent days, this advice has come from sources including environmentalists, organized labor, gays, and abortion-rights groups, who say that Nader could drain off enough support from Gore to hand the election to Bush.
At a rally in Seattle, Nader yesterday urged supporters in Seattle not to be swayed by ''surrogates of Al Gore.''
''What are these people doing?'' he asked. ''They're going around the country trying to salvage Al Gore's campaign.''
Today, Gore plans a rally in Kansas City, Mo., before traveling to Iowa and his home state of Tennessee for events outside Knoxville and in Memphis. Aides said Gore plans to conclude his campaign with an around-the-clock marathon similar to the 27-hour ''Workathon'' he and running mate Lieberman participated in over Labor Day.
Bush is scheduled to remain in the Midwest today, with stops in Grand Rapids, Saginaw, and Dearborn, Mich., and Morgantown, W. a. After traveling to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia tomorrow, Bush heads to the key state of Florida.
With the election so close, the Bush campaign yesterday said this weekend's schedule was still in flux and that some stops might be added.
Johnson reported from Illinois and Pennsylvania; Kornblut from Illinois and Missouri. Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.
