ANSAS CITY, Mo. - As he did after losing the New Hampshire primary, George W. Bush sought yesterday to regain momentum in his presidential campaign by appropriating his rival's campaign message and saying he is the one who can best make it a reality.
At stops at a Little Rock, Ark., hospital and later at a Missouri theater, the Republican presidential contender said he, not Vice President Al Gore, has the plan best designed to improve the lot of middle-class Americans.
The focus at the start of a six-day, nine-state campaign swing was Bush's tax reform proposals, especially his plan to double the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000 per child. Bush said that would not only give young families more money, but the freedom to choose how they spend it.
''It's all about helping people help themselves,'' the Texas governor said in a speech at St. Vincent's Infirmary in Little Rock, where he toured a neighboring maternity ward. ''I don't believe the role of government is to help people running their lives. My plan is one that gives people options, not orders. It's one that trusts individuals to be responsible for the decisions they make in their life.''
Bush contrasted his proposals and philosophy, summarized in a new 16-page ''Blueprint for the Middle Class,'' with the targeted tax cuts offered by the vice president. Starting at the Democratic National Convention, Gore has pitched his $500 billion plan, which targets tax cuts at middle-income people saving for college or retirement, against Bush's $1.3 trillion across-the-board cut. The vice president says, ''He's for the powerful; we're for the people.''
There is mixed evidence that Bush's strategy is working, with the latest Newsweek poll showing Gore for the first time over 50 percent, leading Bush 52 percent to 38 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup tracking poll being released today showed Gore's lead slipping from 8 percentage points on Sunday to 5 points yesterday, 48 percent to 43 percent. That poll had a 3-point margin of error.
As Bush did by casting himself as a government reformer after Senator John S. McCain's reform message propelled him to victory in the New Hampshire primary, the governor said yesterday that he is the true patron of the middle class. The proof, he said, is in his tax cuts. His aides estimate that 50 million taxpayers would not receive a tax cut under Gore's plan but that Bush's proposal would touch all of them. The Gore campaign sets the figure at 30 million.
''I don't believe in the rhetoric that he used at his own convention, when he said that only the `right people' will get tax relief,'' Bush told the hospital audience. ''I don't think the government ought to try to pick and choose winners. I think the `right people' are all people in America who pay taxes.''
Gore spokeswoman Kym Spell accused Bush of ''underestimating the American people.''
She said: ''For the first time in this country, we've got a big-oil ticket that's giving a big tax break that mainly benefits the top 1 percent of families. For George W. Bush to paint himself as an advocate for the middle class is almost as ludicrous as his $1.6 trillion tax cut for the wealthy.'' The Gore campaign adds $300 billion in interest costs to Bush's proposal.
The middle-class pitch is part of a larger effort by the Bush campaign to appeal to women voters. The campaign concedes that it has lost support and that the ''gender gap'' the Republican Party traditionally faces has widened.
Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes attributed that shift to Gore's aggressive populist pitch on taxes, Social Security reform, and other issues.
''He has misrepresented the governor's record and he's misrepresented the governor's proposals,'' Hughes told reporters. ''I think that also he's managed to, unfortunately, muddy the waters on the issue of education.''
The St. Vincent's speech was set against a blueprint of a house, the rooms of which represented Bush's policies on taxes, health care, Social Security, education, and families. Across the stage curtain were black and white pictures of new mothers and their children. Bush, who is traveling this week with his wife, Laura, was joined on stage by two young families cradling babies.
''These families up here are the kinds of people who I talk about,'' the governor said. ''The hopes of American families are the cornerstone of my campaign. One of the goals of the campaign is to help young Americans to go to college, to help young couples realize their dreams, to help people learn to save, to help the elderly with a retirement that's dignified.''
Today, Bush is to appear on Oprah Winfrey's talk show in Chicago, as Gore did last week.
