Clintons Venture Out From Solitude

EDGARTOWN, Mass. —  After a week of keeping a low profile inside the compound where they are staying, President Clinton and his family ventured out in public Tuesday.

In early afternoon, the Clintons--the president, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea--spent more than an hour sailing with former TV anchorman Walter Cronkite aboard his 60-foot ketch, Wyntje.

Looking chipper, the Clintons smiled and waved while a crowd of about 200 onlookers cheered as Cronkite’s boat left the Edgartown municipal dock and headed toward the open sea.

For armchair psychologists who have been watching for signs of how the Clintons have been faring since the president’s confession that he had an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky, the images were ripe for over-interpretation:

The sleek, blue vessel set off in choppy waters, under cloudy skies suggesting that further storms may lie ahead--particularly if Hurricane Bonnie should come this way.

The Wyntje was surrounded by U.S. Coast Guard and state police boats that kept station a discreet couple of hundred yards away. Reporters were ferried in a motorboat that kept them barely in sight of Cronkite’s craft.

Those watching on the press boat later reported that, although the Clintons stood in a cluster as the vessel got underway, they later separated and sat on opposite sides of the cockpit.

Until Tuesday, except for an abrupt overnight trip to Washington after the United States launched missile strikes against terrorist bases, the president has been quiet, rarely emerging from the house he is using here, engaging in what the White House has called family healing.

The Clintons attended separate lunches Monday--the president dining privately with his longtime friend and advisor, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., and the first lady lunching on a boat owned by Kelly Day, a friend of hers.

The Clintons skipped church Sunday--a rarity for the first family.

But by Tuesday, the curtain began to lift.

In addition to the boat trip, the White House announced that the president will fly to Boston on Thursday for the first political event of his 1998 vacation--a day trip to Worcester, Mass., to highlight his concern about school violence.

The plan for a presidential trip to Worcester on Thursday was greeted here with much of the same cynicism that led some to question whether last week’s U.S. missile strikes were designed to distract attention from the scandal.

Deputy Press Secretary Barry Toiv insisted that the visit to Worcester had been “under consideration for some time,” saying that it reflected the president’s “continuing” concern over school violence.

He said that Clinton was invited to Worcester a year ago by Rep. James P. McGovern (D-Mass.), who represents the area. “We decided that this would be a good opportunity and the president is happy to do it,” he said.

Toiv also suggested that Mrs. Clinton, who has been keeping her distance during the Clintons’ few public appearances this week, probably would not be accompanying the president on the Worcester trip.

“I don’t know for certain but I doubt that,” Toiv said, when asked whether Mrs. Clinton would be going along on the flight. “When she vacations, she vacations,” he added.

Toiv said it probably would be the president’s only trip off Martha’s Vineyard during the remainder of his vacation. The Clintons are slated to return to Washington on Sunday.

Clinton has taken relatively few such day trips during previous vacations. This year marks the fourth time that the first family has been to Martha’s Vineyard for a holiday.