One Friday evening, shortly after President Clinton took office, Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) and several friends were invited to the White House for a movie and popcorn.
It was supposed to be in celebration of Clinton’s first legislative victory, signing of the family leave bill.
Instead, a puffy-eyed Clinton arrived late after a day of triumph that turned into an evening of controversy and disappointment over the last-minute withdrawal of his second candidate for attorney general, Judge Kimba Wood.
Insisting that the president needed his rest, Pryor and the others got up and tactfully began to leave.
“Y’all can leave if you want. But I’m going to watch a movie,” Clinton insisted, finally convincing his guests to stay and watch the Steve Martin film “Leap of Faith” with him.
In the eight weeks since he took office, Clinton, who is a generation younger than his two predecessors in the White House, has maintained a pace few could match.
While Ronald Reagan let off steam chopping wood at his California ranch and George Bush liked to go fishing, Clinton has stuck to a high-energy schedule, shunned out-of-town vacations and grabbed moments of relaxation when he could-usually by gathering family and friends for an informal evening watching sports or movies.
His grueling schedule has set friends and staff to worrying he may be pushing himself too hard.
People close to Clinton say the bags under his eyes are caused as much by allergies as lack of rest.
But privately friends admit they are troubled over reports of his sleeplessness and concerned that the weekly trips promoting his economic plan, lengthy skull sessions on the budget and health-care reform and his burning the midnight oil over paperwork in the Oval Office are taking a toll.
“I worry a little bit, as I think some of his other friends do,” said one longtime friend of the Clintons.
Even fellow worshipers, greeting the president last Sunday at the Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, were heard to remark about how weary Clinton appeared.
Since his inauguration Jan. 20, Clinton has criss-crossed the country for a town meeting and a series of campaign-style rallies. His one visit to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, was a working session with Cabinet members.
By comparison, Bush regularly fit in vacation time at his home in Kennebunkport, Maine. The Reagans frequently unwound at their ranch outside Santa Barbara, Calif.
But the Clintons don’t have a vacation home. Despite rumors that they will build one, possibly somewhere in Arkansas, or acquire one in California, there are no such plans, said press secretary Dee Dee Myers.
“They’ve never had a discussion about a vacation home,” Myers said. “When you travel a lot, sometimes it’s nice just to stay at home.”
Weekend getaways are more complicated to plan because of concern that 13-year-old Chelsea’s activities will be interrupted.
“She’s got things going on too, so they want to be near her,” said Hillary Rodham Clinton’s spokeswoman, Lisa Caputo.
One evening, when Chelsea was feeling ill, the Clintons moved a planning session on health-care reform from the West Wing to their residence so they could keep an eye on her.
Family friends insist that the 46-year-old Clinton recognizes his workaholic tendencies. Even if the public doesn’t always see it, he manages regularly to take plenty of time in his daily routine for family, friends and exercise.
He jogs a few miles most days (at a respectable 8-minute-a-mile pace) and a new jogging track is being built around the perimeter of the White House lawn. On his morning runs around Washington’s monuments, Clinton is followed by a motorcade of Secret Service and media, which creates traffic jams.
Clinton, who has a tendency to stay up late, also is known for being able to refresh himself during the day with catnaps. Last Monday, for example, despite a busy day of news conferences and meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Clinton managed to squeeze in a quick 40 winks and even took a leisurely walk in the snow with Chelsea, who had no classes because of what the National Weather Service has called “the storm of the century.”
Later, he and Chelsea met actors Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman and Tim Robbins and American University President Joseph Duffey at the tony Italian restaurant Galileo for dinner and an evening of story-telling and reminiscing. Clinton recalled the time in 1970 he packed cold beer in the back of a station wagon that Newman drove across Connecticut stumping for Duffey in his unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign against Lowell Weicker.
For their occasional nights on the town, the Clintons have picked ethnic and regional American eateries that are popular with Washington yuppies. They ate Valentine’s Day dinner at Red Sage, the trendy Southwestern-style restaurant, sharing a crusted lamb loin baked in Pueblo Indian herb bread.
They dined on “biodynamic” cuisine at Nora’s, a restaurant in the artsy DuPont Circle area that specializes in politically correct, additive-free food.
They even went out on a double date with Al and Tipper Gore for an evening of Jerry Jeff Walker at a country-music nightclub, the Birchmere, in nearby Alexandria, Va.
When Clinton ordered a Canadian beer (light), the owner suggested he drink it with lime because “it’s the yuppie thing to do.”
“Well, bring me a lime,” Clinton responded gamely.
But for the most part, the Clintons seem to prefer spending their rare free evenings at home.
Like most families, the Clintons struggle to find “quality time” together. But even then, the president routinely returns to the Oval Office in the evening, often working at his desk until midnight or later.
He plays pinochle or rummy games with Chelsea or entertains overnight guests, who have included actress-Arkansas friend Mary Steenburgen (on her 40th birthday) and television producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and husband Harry Thomason.
A devout University of Arkansas Razorbacks fan, Clinton recently invited the Arkansas congressional delegation and Louisiana Sen. John Breaux over for an evening of friendly rivalry, watching a televised Arkansas-Louisiana State basketball game.
“Some people relax by being by themselves,” Breaux said. “For Clinton, relaxing is being with people. He is totally a public person. He likes to interact with people constantly.”
