W. to Other Candidates: Read My Lips...

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On the eve of Thursday's New Hampshire debate, George W. Bush has a message for his opponents: Get ready for the coming of a kinder, gentler Ronald Reagan. The evidence: a bold tax plan that puts his money where his "compassionate conservatism" sound bite is, tempering supply-side Reaganomics with aid to the working poor. It includes a $1.3 trillion tax cut over 10 years, with extra relief to poor families. The plan received a conservative blessing Wednesday in the form of a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, which said "the Bush plan at least moves in the Reagan direction and realizes that taxpayers who built the current boom need incentives to keep it going." Bush, who trails John McCain in recent New Hampshire polls, should score major points among the state's famously tax-phobic Republicans.

One Achilles' heel: Bush will be left open to criticism because he couldn't find room for a capital gains tax cut. "Steve Forbes will attack it as a half-measure, as a tweaking of the system, not an overhaul," says TIME Washington correspondent James Carney. But the bigger problems could come in a general election. Recent polls show that voters are more concerned with further reducing the national debt and shoring up Medicare and education than with tax cuts. So while wooing much of his own party, Bush could alienate many of the "Reagan Democrats" who are less concerned with personal financial stability than they were in leaner times, as well as Republican fiscal conservatives who may be more drawn to a conservative Reform party candidate. And many Democrats and Republicans could find fault with a plan that would spend more money than the Congressional Budget Office says we're going to be taking in. "Bush is certainly open for attack on both fronts," says Carney, "but overall this proposal will be a boon both in the short term and in the general election because it puts policy behind his claims."