All of which effectively countered the Democrats' biggest problem, which is Slick Willy's aforementioned slick willy. To that end, I suspect the supposed writhing of the Gore camp over the long weekend before the convention, and then through the Hillary and Bill Show Monday night, were calculated to strike just the right balance. There would be no denying the president his long weekend goodbye, basking in the affection of a town he has made his own. His thin veneer of smarmy populism plays perfectly in Tinseltown, the only place in America where multimillionaires still think of themselves as "the little people." Hollywood is also the world's primary bastion and purveyor of liberal social values, the capital of live-and-let-live (provided you don't try to smoke in a public place). So even though the demographics of Westwood, Hollywood and Santa Monica scream Republican, the place is as Democratic as the Kennedys' living room. Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the reigning moguls, recoiled when I asked him why he wasn't a Republican. I confronted him, a short, tan, balding man in a hurry, as he was departing a fundraising luncheon he sponsored for Democratic women congressional candidates at Regency Studios in West Hollywood. Hillary had just given a short speech.

"This is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America, can you tell me why it is so Democratic?" I asked Katzenberg, who didn't stop walking.

"No," he said, and grinned that why me? grin that all celebrities have and glanced around quickly to locate studio security.

"OK, then why are you a Democrat?"

"I can't speak for all of Hollywood, but for me, when I look around this room, I see women who have mounted campaigns for things like improving education, gun control, healthcare and for protecting a woman's reproductive rights," he said. "These are issues I believe in and support, and these are the people I want leading our country."

The Clintons have learned to work this rare vein of liberal gold in the California hills.

Dan Jinks, co-producer of last year's Oscar-winning "American Beauty," helped host with his filmmaking partner Bruce Cohen a fundraising luncheon for Hillary several months ago, even though he had never met her before.

"She called me one day to tell me how much she and the president liked our movie," Jinks said. He and Cohen were flattered, and perhaps a bit surprised, given that the movie depicts a man who lusts after his teenage daughter's girlfriend (but, significantly, doesn't cheat on his wife, who does cheat on him) and is murdered by the closeted "don't ask-don't tell" gay colonel who lives next door. But, hey, the president likes your movie, you don't complain. A few weeks later, the pitch followed: Would you and Mr. Cohen consider holding a lunch for Hillary the next time she's out your way?

Fashionably decadent Hollywood would also be the last place to hold the president's indiscretions against him. The payoff for the movie stars, directors and producers, of course, is access to power. It is significant to note that in the past, celebrities courted power. Now it's the other way around. The Clintons have nurtured the loyalty of their Hollywood FOBs (Friends of Bill) by inviting a steady stream of them east for state banquets and sleepovers. Whoopi Goldberg gushed that she had met "kings and queens," and that the White House help didn't even check her luggage for purloined silverware and souvenirs when she left. Actress Alfrie Woodard was epic in her praise, calling Clinton "a righteous brother, not in the holy way, necessarily [we wouldn't expect], but in that brother-man way, that one-with-the-people kind of way, coming from them, moving among them ..." No one was more grateful for this access than John Travolta, who gave a remarkably accurate and affectionate portrayal of Clinton in "Primary Colors." At a party hosted by primo FOB Barbra Streisand, the diva produced a pedestrian prose anthem of tribute: "Bill Clinton is our president, my president, and these have been the best eight years of our lives ... What will we miss? What endeared you to us? I can only speak for myself. If I were ever in Washington and asked you for directions, you'd think about it, and you'd put me on the right path ... If I were hungry, you'd sit down and eat a cheeseburger with me, and you wouldn't hold the fries."

The idea was to let the president hog the spotlight for a few well-earned days (with the Gore camp whining off the record), and then clear him out for the real business. I was watching on television across the street from the Staples Center Monday night when the president gave his swan song, another performance smooth enough to charm a dog off raw meat. It was preceded by that odd hallway sequence, with Clinton striding purposefully up one long hallway, turning, striding up another, turning, striding up another. The sequence, I learned later, was designed to have a long list of Clinton administration accomplishments scrolling across screen while the president hiked, the length of his entrance drawn out by the sheer magnitude of his success, but some of the networks, including the one I was watching, decided not to show the text on-screen.

There were those who complained that Clinton's speech, while typically good, was too long and too much about him. I suspect this was more calculated leakage by the Gore camp, but I think it's only fair that we allow presidents to assume credit for these things, because we also blame them when times are not so good. Kurt Schmoke, the former mayor of Baltimore, once told me that while most people think of the mayor as the man behind the wheel of the city bus, in reality it is more like hitching a ride on the bus's back bumper. If it reels out of control, the best you can do is hang on and signal frantically for help -- because it's gonna go where it's gonna go.

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