SAN JOSE, Calif. — With the room stacked against him and polls giving his opponent nearly a 4-1 lead in the state, Bill Bradley argued passionately for converts Saturday at the California Democratic convention. Vice President Al Gore warned Bradley is not a "real Democrat."
In back-to-back speeches as different as night and day, Gore debuted his most ruthless offensive yet in this increasingly bitter contest. Bradley offered a romantic vision of the party that hopes to hold the White House, highlighting goals of universal health care and elimination of child poverty.
"We have in our best moments always been the party of big ideas and big ideals," Bradley said. And between him and Gore, "There is a difference in boldness."
Gore had only to clasp raised fists with Gov. Gray Davis in a victory salute to demonstrate his muscle in California.
Relying on note cards, Gore said Bradley has "attacked" and "demeaned" the Democratic Party by faulting the Clinton-Gore administration's lack of progress on health care, gun control and child poverty.
Gore accused Bradley, who has hammered the vice president for past pro-gun and anti-abortion views, of taking his cue from the Republican National Committee. "Real Democrats don't aid and abet the Republicans," Gore said.
"Senator Bradley claims he's doing us a service because he doesn't want to see Democrats bashed in the fall. His proposed solution is to bash Democrats in the spring," Gore added to cheers from a crowd that nearly doubled in the time between Bradley's speech and Gore's.
Antioch nurse Martha Henry said she was converted on the spot by Bradley, "because I believed everything he said." But she doubted he had time to overcome Gore before the March 7 jackpot primary will decide 367 of the 2,170 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
"From the crowd in here, I wouldn't think he could, but I hope so," said Henry.
Gore supporter Roger Henry, a party central committee member from Contra Costa county, said he understood his wife's instant support for Bradley and his vision.
"I'm a traditionalist but I want to win. You've got to have the office to have the power," said Mr. Henry.
"Bradley's vision is what Bill Clinton's was in 1992 and we couldn't get it done. Gore's vision — what Bradley calls 'clipping around the edges' — is doable."
The party favorite, Gore spoke inside the San Jose convention center after a lineup of officials — the governor, party chairman Art Torres, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer — promoted the vice president's ascension. "Nominate Al Gore!" Boxer ordered some 3,000 conventiongoers who are reliable primary voters. After Bradley vacated the podium, Torres called out: "Godspeed, Senator Bradley."
A woman at the foot of the stage hoisted a large, neon-orange heart that read: "Bill Bradley is change."
Gore has backing here from all but a handful of elected officials and Davis has pledged the work of his "entire operation" in Gore's service. To try and counter Gore's institutional advantage, Bradley has placed markers on as much as $3 million worth of TV advertising time for the final two weeks of the California race, said a knowledgeable ad industry expert.
On his way to the meeting, Bradley tried to make his own show of muscle, leading a march of some 500 supporters through downtown San Jose to the convention center. The party barred entrance to most of them, allowing Bradley just 200 or so guest passes.
The former senator from New Jersey spoke of dreams, saying his goals are universal health care, the elimination of child poverty, registration of all handguns, deeper racial understanding, and "a qualified teacher in every classroom in every school."
"I believe to the bottom core of my being that the Democratic Party can be the agent for that kind of dream, for that kind of accomplishment, as long as we do one thing: we must not settle," Bradley said.
Gore, he said, has a comprehensive education agenda but advocates incremental health care reform and more limited gun controls.
Bradley's speech, delivered with barely a glance at his notes, left Jane Marcus shaking and in tears. "He tells me the truth and I believe him," said the Stanford University administrator.
She watched as, during Bradley's remarks, Gore aides distributed a press release labeling Bradley a "special agent of the RNC."
"I was appalled," said Marcus, who said Gore allies want to make Bradley supporters feel like disloyal Democrats.
"It's dirty tricks. As a Democrat, don't I have as much a right as any other person in this room to say who I want to be president?"