Bush has embarked on a two-track strategy in an attempt to regain the offensive and whittle away at Gore's advantages. After an internal debate over whether to focus on issues or character, his advisers said yesterday Bush intends to do both. The Texas governor began to implement his strategy last week but often found himself drowned out by unexpected distractions, some generated by his own allies, some foisted upon him by the Gore campaign's guerrilla tactics. Yesterday, in a speech to California Republicans, he tried again to refocus the debate and re-center his candidacy. Bush said Gore would spend the entire projected budget surplus and more on expanded government programs.
Every big idea means bigger government.
He also charged that even congressional Republicans, in their latest proposal to reserve most of the surplus for debt reduction, showed they were running away from Bush's tax plan. Bush's new strategy, top officials said yesterday, combines aggressive engagement on big issues with a renewed effort to challenge Gore's credibility by demonstrating that Gore's record and policies don't match his campaign rhetoric. After yesterday's speech, Bush will use the coming week to contrast his agenda with Gore's piece by piece, day by day. The retooling of the GOP nominee's campaign, meanwhile, has left Gore's advisers and other Democrats unimpressed. To describe this as a turn to issues would be generous.