MEDFORD--Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley trumpeted his foreign policy credentials yesterday during a lively question and answer session at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

The hour-and-a-half "town meeting" was designed to showcase the breadth of Bradley's expertise in foreign affairs in the wake of questions about the competency of the leading Republican presidential contender, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and also to distinguish himself from the policies favored by Al Gore '69, his leading Democratic rival.

The United States's policy towards Russia elicited Bradley's most trenchant remarks.

The former senator, who served eight years on the Senate intelligence committee, charged that the U.S. had bungled its policy towards Russia after the end of the Cold War.

"We spent more time acting as missionaries for a particular kind of international economics than acting in our own national interest," he said.

Worse, Bradley argued, was the fact that the U.S. still clings to an often ineffectual Russian leader, Boris N. Yeltsin.

"Our relationship with the Russian people has become our relationship with Yeltsin," he said.

Though he made no explicit reference to Gore, Bradley clearly tried to set himself apart from his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and also one of the principal architects of the Clinton administration's foreign policies.

The former New Jersey senator articulated a foreign policy that emphasized both an open global economy and military restraint.

"There is only one economic model in the world, and it is one that rewards sound fiscal policy. There is no other way," Bradley proclaimed.

In contrast, Bradley came out against the U.S. interfering in world politics unilaterally.

That role, he said, was more properly fulfilled by organizations like the United Nations.

"We cannot give an open-ended humanitarian commitment to the world," he said. "It's much better deal with the 32 ethnic wars going on in the world right now in a multilateral context. That means more U.N."

Bradley also criticized politicians for allowing political maneuvering at home to affect U.S. policy abroad.

"There used to be consensus on these issues," he said. "Political division stopped at the water's edge. Sadly, that's no longer true. Now, foreign policy is formed by focus groups to score domestic points at home," a reference to charges that President Clinton and Vice-President based their foreign policy on public opinion.

Most students at the event said they were impressed with Bradley's command of the issues the country faces abroad.

"He was very knowledgeable," said Jonathan D. Brown, a junior at Tufts. "But he had to be, with that Bush thing. He had to come out with spades on this issue."

"That Bush thing" is a reference to Bush's bungling a series of questions about world leaders by Boston television reporter Andy Hiller.

Bush was unable to name the heads of state of four countries of particular importance to U.S. foreign policy--Pakistan, India, Chechnya, and Taiwan--prompting a wave of monologue jokes and whispers about Bush's competency.

"[Bradley] doesn't need foreign policy training," Eric Hauser, Bradley's press secretary, told The Crimson.

Bradley's stop at Tufts yesterday comes as he is increasing his television presence in Massachusetts.

Presidential candidates--and Bradley in particular--are spending far more money on television ads this year than they have in past campaigns, according to Christopher D. Russell, the political accounts executive at Boston's WCVB Channel 5, an ABC affiliate.

"Normally, we wouldn't see this until mid to late December," Russell said. "Some serious money is being spent in New Hampshire, and now in the Boston market as well.

According to Russell, television ads originating from Boston TV stations reach almost half the population of New Hampshire.

With New Hampshire's crucial primary on the horizon and a series of debates upcoming in the next few weeks, candidates are stepping up their advertisement campaigns in the area.

Contenders like Bradley are hoping that the cost will pay off if they make a good showing in the primary and prove their viability, political analysts said.