Bradley & Gore Clash In N.H.

Al Gore accused Democratic presidential rival Bill Bradley of shortchanging Medicare Friday night, and Bradley shot back in campaign debate that the vice president's own health insurance plan would mean some Americans would go without any coverage. "Who would you leave out?" he said.

"The answer is simple. I won't leave anybody out," Gore shot back instantly, seated a few feet away from his rival on a stage in the nation's first presidential primary state.

Gore has said Bradley's costly prescription for universal health care would mean not enough money would be left over for Medicare, and the issue has emerged as a flash point in their increasingly contentious battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

He repeated his claim midway through a 90-minute debate, and Bradley had a quick rejoinder: In three terms in the Senate, he said, "I defended Medicare for 18 years. It was through my efforts that we prevented premiums from going up on a number of occasions."

Bradley then sought to turn the tables on the health care issue, insisting that Gore explain who he would leave without insurance coverage: the part-time worker, the worker victimized by downsizing or the "40 percent of the people who live in poverty who don't have health insurance?"

Gore replied: "I want to get universal health insurance with a step by step plan and neither of us has covered everyone."

Opening a new front, he added, "You canceled Medicaid," the health care program for the poor.

Bradley defended his plan to replace Medicaid, a program now run by the states, with government subsidies to help the poor buy health insurance. Bradley, an 18-year Senate veteran, wrapped his defense in language designed to cast Gore as a lifelong Washington insider.

"From the vantage point of Washington, Medicaid looks pretty good," Bradley said. "But if you get out in the country and you see how it's being--how it's applied, you find that it's not working."

Gore remains the front-runner nationally in the race, as judged in the polls. But statewide surveys show Bradley even or slightly ahead in New Hampshire, where the first primary ballots will be cast on Feb. 1, and he is hoping to ambush the vice president and use that as a springboard to later triumphs.

The exchange over health care came midway through the 90-minute debate, staged by ABC Nightline on the campus of Daniel Webster College in southern New Hampshire, and the first of two encounters this weekend. Moderator Ted Koppel set only one ground rule as the rivals settled onto their swivel stools: remain seated.

There was little to bring them out of their seats in the first few exchanges, as Gore said he and Bradley both had been blessed with wonderful wives.

The opening question produced agreement between the two rivals that long-ago use of marijuana should not disqualify anyone from serving in the White House, and said evry candidate must decide how much scrutiny of their past to permit.

"I've admitted that I have smoked marijuana, as the vice president has," Bradley said, sitting a few feet away from the vice president on a stage at Daniel Webster College.

Gore said he had "been open about it," and said he would let the Republican front-runner, Texas Gov. George Bush, "decide for himself how to respond."

Bush has said he hasn't used illegal drugs in the past 25 years, but has declined to address possible earlier use.

Nearly an hour later, Bradley drew the line at discussing his religious faith. "In my own case I've decided my personal faith is private and I will not discuss it in public," he said, although he added that he respected the way Bush had responded to a question relating to religion in a GOP debate earlier this week.

Gore said he favors separation of church and state, and issued a declaration of support for everyone's views on the subject including, he said, atheists.

A question on gun control produced some restrained jabbing.

"I'm the only candidate in this race who has called for mandatory licensing and registration of all handguns in this country," said Bradley, who added he also wants to move gun dealers out of residential neighborhoods.

Gore stressed that he, too, favors gun control.

The congenial tone first dimmed when Gore, pointing out that he sets aside a chunk of the budget surplus for Medicare, asked Bradley what he would do to strengthen the program for Baby Boomers.

The two men interrupted one another numerous times in the span of a few intense moments, and at one point, Bradley turned to Koppel and said: "See you made a mistake when you said we should ask each other questions."

Their encounter was the first since October 27, and since then, the campaign between the two Democrats who once served together in the Senate has grown increasingly heated.

In that October debate, Bradley left Gore's charges against his health plan and his commitment to Medicare largely unanswered.

He eventually watched his slight leads in New Hampshire and New York polls evaporate. And on the campaign trail, he let himself get drawn into hypothetical questions giving Gore fodder, however shaky, for claims that Bradley wanted to raise taxes and cut Social Security. Bradley's New Hampshire campaign had to apologize for a pamphlet that accused Gore of "uncontrollable lying."

On Friday, borrowing a page from Gore's campaign book, Bradley's staff released a study by three economists and health policy analysts who are advising the former New Jersey senator.

Harvard University's David M. Cutler, Stanford University's Alan M. Garber and Neal Masia of ChannelPoint Inc. said their analysis concluded that Bradley's $65-billion health care plan, Gore's favorite target, would expand insurance coverage to 30 million Americans. The vice president's more limited proposal would reac just 7 million people currently uninsured, the trio said.

Gore had chosen the October debate to hit Bradley with a study by a similarly friendly outside expert, former Clinton-Gore administration official Kenneth Thorpe, who said Bradley's health plan would really cost around $1 trillion.