AMARAC, Fla. - Women screamed his name and strained across one another to touch his cheek. One admirer managed to squeeze in close enough to kiss his hand.
In this predominantly Jewish, mainly female senior citizens center, Liebermania had arrived.
''It's like kissing the Torah, kissing you!'' gushed a silver-haired woman, leaving a bright red lipstick mark on the back of the hand of Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
''We love you, Joe!'' yelled out residents of the Kings Point Community, a retirement center where Lieberman, the first Jew to be nominated for vice president on a major party ticket, campaigned yesterday.
Vice President Al Gore was also along for the trip, and promised to protect Social Security and Medicare. He also pledged to provide a $3,000-a-year tax credit to families paying for the long-term care of their elderly relatives.
But it was Lieberman, peppering his speech with Yiddish and speaking emotionally about how the family of his wife, Hadassah, survived the Holocaust, who stole the show. The crowd leapt to their feet and roared when Lieberman walked on stage, as a senior citizen band played ''Happy Days Are Here Again.''
''I actually feel like I'm in a room full of family members,'' Lieberman said.
Tipper Gore and Hadassah Lieberman have received such warm welcomes that he and Gore ''feel like `nuchschleppers,''' or hangers-on, the senator said, drawing a loud chuckle from the crowd.
He greeted them with the phrase, ''Shalom aleichem,'' or ''Peace to you,'' and talked about how grateful he was to be picked as Gore's running mate.
''In my family, we said, `In America, nothing's too good for a `mensch,''' Lieberman said, getting applause for his use of the Yiddish word for a nice guy.
''Stop me!'' Lieberman said, holding up his hand self-mockingly, as if he were unable to stop uttering Yiddish.
The group, overwhelmingly Democratic and hailing largely from New York, New Jersey, and Boston, is presumed to be solidly behind the Gore-Lieberman ticket. Lieberman is expected to help galvanize the Jewish vote in Florida and to help raise money here. A fund-raiser last night in wealthy Parkland raised $500,000 for the Democratic National Committee.
But Jewish voters make up only 6 percent of Florida's electorate, and the Democratic duo faces a tougher fight for the rest of the state and its 25 electoral votes. President Clinton in 1996 became the first Democratic presidential candidate to take Florida since 1976, and the Gore campaign says the state is in play this year.
Nonetheless, Florida is still largely conservative. Central Florida voters are irked by Gore's pro-gun control stance, and the Cuban-American community in southern Florida is historically Republican. Moreover, GOP nominee George W. Bush's brother, Jeb, is the state's governor.
''Florida is certainly a state Gore needs. He has to find some way to neutralize the Republican advantage in the South,'' said Earl Black, a Southern politics specialist at Rice University in Houston.
''It's going to be very difficult'' for Gore, ''especially if he continues to characterize this as an election between the working families and the powerful few. A lot of middle-class people think they are workers, too,'' and may be offended by Gore's class-struggle theme, Black said.
Bush is scheduled to campaign today in Miami to deliver a speech on foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere. Those plans were in some doubt, however, as Tropical Storm Debby moved toward South Florida.
The Bush campaign also plans to become more aggressive in countering Gore's criticism of the governor's 10-year, $1.3 trillion tax-cut proposal. Bush plans to point out that Gore's $500 billion proposed tax cut would be less than half the size of his own, and he will argue that it would further complicate the tax code with targeted breaks that leave out as many as 50 million Americans, said a Bush spokesman.
Yesterday, the Republican campaign released a statement criticizing Gore's comments on helping families pay to care for their elderly members.
''Despite the fact that Republicans in Congress and the Clinton-Gore administration have proposed long-term health care initiatives, Washington failed to get it done,'' said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett. ''Governor Bush will bring a new tone and leadership to Washington so that families can finally receive the long-term care they've been promised.''
In their appearance at the seniors' center, Gore and Lieberman headed into an overflow room after their speeches to greet supporters who couldn't fit into the meeting hall. Gore was surrounded by seniors, but the group abandoned Gore and swarmed around Lieberman when the senator approached. ''Tachlis! Remind [Gore] of the word!'' a man shouted at Lieberman. The senator explained later that the word means ''telling it like it is.''
''These two are really talking and feeling what the average person is feeling,'' said Ruth Epstein, who described herself as ''early '70's'' in age. ''We love them both.''
But ''this is their territory,'' Epstein added. ''I would like to see what the response would be from another group'' in Florida.
Glen Johnson of the Globe Staff reported from Austin, Texas.
