Clinton’s aides are spinning that their man is calmer, more deliberate than he was on the campaign trail. They may have a hard time convincing the advance man bawled out last week by the president (over an open mike) for some foul-up on a tour of working-class Washing-ton. But there’s no doubting the president’s enthusiasm. Clinton is in policy-wonk heaven. For someone steeped in the details of governance, what could be more fun than getting to write the entire federal budget? The White House these days has taken on the air of a college dorm at exam time.The august Roosevelt Room has been transformed into a “seminar room,” where Clinton and his aides spend long hours debating the intricacies of the earned-income tax credit. The White House Mess, once an exclusive dining area reserved for senior staffers, has been opened up to everybody and resembles a student union, with lines of young people waiting for short-order food. After his address before Congress last week, Clinton invited all the “kids” who worked on the speech, some 30 of them, to celebrate over cherry pie in the Solarium. Sometimes the youth culture reaches comical extremes. Communications Director George Stephanopoulos, 32, has been known to blow bubble gum in the midst of an interview. The only White House regulars Clinton doesn’t welcome to the party are those from the Fourth Estate. The relative openness of the West Wing is in direct contrast to the hermetically sealed press room, where grumpy reporters are penned up.
Being leader of the free world has a few drawbacks, of course. No late-night runs to Dunkin’ Donuts, for instance. Clinton chafes at his constant retinue of Secret Service agents. Mocking the way agents monitor Clinton’s every move in the heavily fortified West Wing, a friend jokes about overhearing: “Eagle on his way to the pastry kitchen.” (Eagle is Clinton’s code name.) When aides ordered in Domino’s pizza during one marathon budget session, Clinton could only look on longingly. The Secret Service wouldn’t let him dig into a slice that had not been inspected for tampering. Living in such a controlled setting does have one advantage for Clinton: his weight has remained steady since he took office.
On their first morning in the White House, the Clintons were shocked to be awakened in their double bed by a steward, a practice they ended right then with a few choice words. But if the White House is short on privacy, it is long on built-in entertainment. Inviting in a steady stream of old friends like Hollywood TV producer Harry Thomason and New York attorney Susan Thomases, Clinton has bowled in the private lanes and watched double features in the private theater. The construction of a jogging track on the South Lawn of the White House is Clinton’s recognition of reality. He’d rather jog outside the gates, but the District’s drivers voted no with their horns every morning. Aides say the $30,000 track, paid for with donated materials and private donations, will be easier on Clinton’s aging knees than pounding the city streets.
If anyone should be showing signs of strain, it’s Supermom, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her public smile remains radiant, but when she’s not on for the camera, she doesn’t mind looking like she’s working hard. As she walks the halls of the West Wing, she’s willing to be seen without her makeup or her hair carefully coiffed. It’s hard to imagine Nancy Reagan or even Barbara Bush being that real when anyone was looking. When Chelsea needed permission at school to get aspirin, she told the nurse to “Call my dad, my mom’s too busy.” (The president, on the other hand, had plenty of time to chat and breezily carried on with the nurse for several minutes.) On Valentine’s Day, the Clintons ducked out to the tony Red Sage restaurant serving Southwestern food that used to be a favorite of top Bush officials. A year ago the country wondered whether their marriage would be strong enough to survive Gennifer Flowers’s press conference. As they celebrated their relationship, the country had its answer-and the Clintons had the last laugh.
