MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass. -- See the president play golf at the Farm Neck Country Club without begging for tee times like other non-members. See him sip drinks with Jackie O aboard a luxury yacht. See him motorcade all over the island to catered dinner parties thrown in his honor by various millionaires.
So who does Bill Clinton think he is? A rock star? A movie actor? A Republican?
"He's not riding a bus anymore like he did in the campaign, is he? He's riding yachts," noted Michele Davis, who was the deputy political director in the Reagan White House. "Last year, he pretended he was Ralph Cramden. This year, he's become the '90s version of Ivan Boesky, by virtue of how he spends his free time."
"Give me a break," responded one exasperated senior Clinton administration aide. "Look at where previous presidents have gone. . . . Presidents don't generally vacation at KOA campgrounds in Blythe" in the California desert.
But Ms. Davis is not the only one wondering about the contrast between 1992's version of Bill Clinton and the 1993 version. In some of the farm communities, inner cities and depressed California suburbs where Mr. Clinton went hunting for votes last year, struggling families who thought Mr. Bush was out of touch could be forgiven for wondering just what kind of example Mr. Clinton is setting when he goes to Vail, Colo., and plays golf with former President Gerald R. Ford and golf great Jack Nicklaus.
The truth, though, is probably somewhere in the middle.
For one thing, the first leg of the Clinton family vacation was a water-skiing stint in the Ozark Mountains of his native Arkansas -- not exactly the kind of vacation featured in Travel & Leisure magazine.
And yesterday, the president and his daughter put on western duds -- the president wore blue jeans and a straw cowboy hat -- and went on a trail ride. The president rode a 28-year-old nag named Jack. Mr. Clinton seemed every bit a man of the people as he gazed from his horse, looking at lead Secret Service agent David Carpenter, who appeared as though he'd never been on a horse before, and quipped, "Nice saddle, Dave."
Sometimes the activities of the first family are hard to label. Yesterday, for example, Mrs. Clinton went for a hike. But her hiking companion was William Styron, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and a member of the Vineyard elite.
