Thousands Jam National Mall for Clinton’s Big Bash

You are standing in a line outside a big, white tent waiting to see actor Larry Luckinbill pretend he’s Clarence Darrow. Every 30 seconds, police officers push you back so somebody more important can pass through the crowd. Your nose is running, your toes are numb and you’re hungry. Your sister is back in L.A., tooling around town in a Miata with the top down.

At this point, the question presents itself: Is this the “American Journey” I really want to take?

Evidently it is, because thousands upon thousands of people crammed the National Mall on Sunday for festivities surrounding the 53rd inauguration of an American president. And a good many of them admitted to actually having left Los Angeles for this, according to a highly unscientific survey that amounted to walking up and asking anyone who looked miserable in the cold that has gripped the capital.

The theme of this three-day celebration is “An American Journey,” and that’s what it is all right--an unpredictable concoction of spontaneous joy and nasty tempers.

Here, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and Barney the Dinosaur are sold-out attractions, Harvard University theologian Cornel West and actress Whoopi Goldberg are among “Great Thinkers,” homeless people huddle over steam grates while prominent Democratic women swap fur coats, and the haves are having a considerably different experience than the have-nots--although by many accounts, not necessarily a better one. (Consider Tipper Gore, who will spend much of tonight in a floor-length opera coat of garnet velvet, the lining of which includes representations of the 50 states, 50 gold stars and the names and birthdays of her husband, children and beloved family pets.)

“Maybe it’s corny, but it’s our country. Everybody gets to come. Everybody gets to be a part of it,” said an ebullient Sharon McCartney, a George Washington University law student.

Actually, that depends on just which part of the festivities one wishes to be a part of. If properly credentialed, you could listen to a lecture by Weisel at the Holocaust Museum, hop to one or more of the 14 inaugural balls, catch Aretha Franklin et al at Sunday night’s Presidential Gala, and get a nice bleacher seat for today’s swearing-in ceremony and inaugural parade.

Without credentials, you could stand in line for 45 minutes, listening to Goldberg expound on perseverance over a loudspeaker because the heated tent in which she was speaking is full.

“This is a mess,” a Washington woman fumed outside the museum, where a crowd stood, hoping to get a ticket to hear Wiesel. The tickets had sold out an hour before, but no one had bothered to tell this poor huddled mass.

A man three spaces up barked that he was having a terrific time, which may have had something to do with the fact that he was from Greeley, Colo., and wearing a down-filled coat. This caused the woman to take offense and say that she too was having a terrific time, and so they spent the next minute hollering at each other about what constitutes a terrific time.

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This truly is an American experience. There was plenty of tasty food to be found Sunday at the two “American Kitchens” tents. But then this is Washington, so it was necessary to stand in line to buy tickets for 50 cents apiece, then stand in line again to buy the actual food. By then, no one was really spending money anymore, just tickets, so it wasn’t until much later that you realized you had just spent five bucks for a taco with no meat in it.

The spirit was pretty much summed up at a kiosk where the question was posted: “What Must Be Done to Build a Bridge to the 21st Century?” America, in well-meaning responses, had this to say:

* Provide everyone with affordable, comfortable shoes.

* Pay teachers as much as athletes.

* Plant a Tree! Save An Animal!

* Take a nap.

* Drink till our noses are red, our livers are dead and we are all very merry.

* Find a cure for AIDS.

* Visualize Whirled Peas.

It was a decidedly different inaugural universe in other parts of town, where women dashed into the Chanel shop to pick up last-minute accessories for the gala and limousines lined up around the block at big hotels.

The Hollywood-style gala for President Clinton and his family brought a star-studded list of performers to the USAir Arena, including Goldberg, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Candice Bergen.

At the close of the two-hour gala, Clinton joined the artists onstage and thanked them for helping launch his second term.

But all of this was soup and salad to whet the appetite for the Really Big Show today, when Clinton takes the oath of office for a second time, punctuated by a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue (where the Secret Service has banned the sale of hot chocolate for fear a propane tank might explode and harm the commander in chief) and wrapped up by the inaugural balls.

Even the most devoted Clinton loyalists concede that these three days seem to lack the giddiness that presided over the last one.

“It’s a different mood,” said Dee Schwab, a 44-year-old single mother of four from Charlotte, N.C., who was scoping out her parade seats along a coveted stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. “Last time it felt very different to have someone the age of the Clintons elected. It was a new generation come to office for the first time. It’s not new anymore. We’ve sort of caught up with it.”

Times staff writers Melissa Healy, Warren Vieth and Greg Norman contributed to this story.

* HIGH-TECH SALUTE

The festivities include the latest in computer technology. D1

* POLITICAL BY DESIGN

The first lady’s gown reflects politics more than couture. E1