BOSTON - Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush clashed over tax cuts, Medicare prescription drug benefits and campaign finance Tuesday night in their first debate of the fall, pivot point in the closest White House contest in a generation.
Combative from the outset, Gore charged that his rival's tax plan would ''spend more money on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent than all of the new spending he proposes for education, health care, prescription drugs and national defense all combined.''
But Bush, standing a few feet away on a debate stage at the University of Massachusetts, said Gore's economic plan would offer tax cuts only to the middle class. ''Everybody who pays taxes ought to get relief,'' he said. At the same time, he said, Gore's blueprint would produce ''dramatically'' bigger government with 200 ''new or expanded programs'' and 20,000 new bureaucrats.
''It empowers Washington,'' added the governor, who hastened to tell a national viewing audience he was from West Texas - not the nation's capital. Over and over, he accused Gore of ''fuzzy math.''
Gore and Bush met for the first of three presidential debates over the next two weeks, each man seeking advantage in a race so close that poll after poll shows them within a point or two of one another. Their vice presidential running mates, Democrat Joseph Lieberman and Republican Dick Cheney, debate Thursday in Kentucky.
Jim Lehrer of PBS was moderator, operating under strict rules negotiated in advance by the Gore and Bush camps. It was, he said at the outset, the first of three 90-minute debates between the two major party rivals - a format that excluded Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan, running as minor party candidates.
Outside the hall, dozens of protesters knocked over police barricades and blocked a road leading to the debate hall to protest the exclusion of Buchanan and Nader, who was turned away at the door.
Inside the hall, the audience heeded Lehrer's admonishment to remain silent.
In a reprise of his acceptance speech at this summer's Democratic National Convention, Gore said it was important to stand up to special interests, pharmaceutical companies among them. ''Big drug companies support Governor Bush's prescription drug proposal,'' he said. ''They oppose mine.''
Bush made a sour face when he heard that, and in his next breath offered a swift rebuttal.
''I've been standing up to Big Hollywood and Big Trial Lawyers,'' he shot back, mentioning two groups that have lavished campaign donations on Gore and Democrats.
Stepping onto the podium a few minutes before the debate began, the vice president blew a kiss in the direction of his wife, Tipper, a reminder of the embrace they shared on stage at the convention six weeks ago. Gore and Bush shook hands twice, once before debating and then afterwards.
Each man came equipped with a refrain.
For Bush, it was the accusation that Gore was practicing ''fuzzy math'' with his attacks, sometimes rendered as ''fuzzy Washington math.''
For Gore, it was a loud, audible sigh, meant to convey profound skepticism over Bush's claims about the economy, prescription drugs and other issues.
The criticism grew sharper in the debate's closing moments, when Bush criticized Gore over the fund-raising scandals of the Clinton era. He mentioned Gore's controversial visit to a Buddhist temple, where robed priests later made donations, and said Gore needed to take responsibility for what went on in the White House.
''I believe they've moved that sign, 'The Buck Stops Here,' from the Oval Office desk to the Lincoln Bedroom, and that's not right,'' Bush said.
''You may want to focus on scandals. I want to focus on results,'' Gore countered, maneuvering to turn the spotlight away from questions of his own fund-raising activities. But when the vice president challenged Bush to support campaign finance legislation, the Texas governor said bluntly: ''This man has no credibility on the issue.''
The two men argued at length over prescription drugs for Medicare recipients, a key issue, particularly in the key battleground states of the Midwest. Bush blamed Washington for failing to pass legislation, and touted his own plan to have states offer benefits. ''You've had your chance, Mr. Vice President,'' the governor said.
But Gore, who favors a prescription drug benefit available to all Medicare recipients, said that under Bush's plan only low-income seniors would receive immediate help. Everyone else would have to wait up to four years, he said. In addition, he added, seniors could be forced into HMOs to get a prescription drug benefit.
''I cannot let this go by, the old-style Washington politics, trying to scare you with phony numbers,'' Bush swiftly replied. He accused Gore of ''Medi-scare.''
''This is a man who has great numbers,'' he said of the vice president. ''I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the Internet, he invented the calculator.''
The two men also reprised their campaign-long disagreement over Social Security, Bush defending his plan to allow individuals some control over how to invest their retirement funds, and Gore saying that would threaten the long-term solvency of the nation's huge retirement system.
Whatever the political impact of the debate, four of five seasoned high school and college debate coaches who judged the event for The Associated Press said Gore was the winner. The fifth said Bush was the victor. The coaches judged Gore and Bush in six categories - reasoning, evidence, organization, refutation, cross-examination and presentation.
Asked about a recent FDA decision approving the use of the abortion pill RU-486, Bush said, ''I don't think a president can'' overturn such a decision. He then restated his willingness to sign legislation banning so-called ''partial birth abortions,'' and said Gore wouldn't.
Gore said he would ban such late-term procedures, but only if the legislation included exemptions to protect the life or health of the woman, the position Clinton has taken in vetoing two bills on the subject from the Republican-controlled Congress.
Eager to regain the offensive on a volatile issue, Gore said Bush would appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn a 1973 ruling that legalized a right to abortion. ''I support a woman's right to choose. My opponent does not.''
Bush said he was ''pro-life,'' but disputed any suggestion that he would use the issue as a litmus test for appointments to the high court.
On the first foreign policy issue to come up, Gore and Bush agreed they would not use force to try and remove Slobodan Milosevic from power in Yugoslavia, even though they agreed he had been defeated in recent elections and should give up power.
Gore pounced on Bush's suggestion that the Russians ''have a lot of sway'' in Yugoslavia and might be able to convince Milosevic to leave office. Russian President Vladimir Putin invited Milosevic and the winner of the Sept. 24 election to Moscow for talks to resolve the dispute. But Gore said Putin's unwillingness to recognize the election results was troubling. ''I'm not sure that it's right for us to invite the president of Russia to mediate this dispute there, because we might not like the result that comes out of that.''
Asked about energy policy, Gore attacked Bush for proposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Bush said such domestic oil exploration was preferable to continuing to import a million barrels of oil a day from Iraq's Saddam Hussein.