Back in August 1998, as a D.C. grand jury took testimony in the Lewinsky case, President Bill Clinton took a brief trip to Martha’s Vineyard, the legendary summer vacation spot for DC political and media elites. At the time I joked that Clinton was on a mission of mercy to give bigfoot journalists a way to integrate scandal talk into their traditional August big-think Perspective From Martha’s Vineyard columns.
Now I wonder (facetiously, of course) if Hillary Clinton has the same merciful intention in spending some time at Martha’s Vineyard at the same time the president is there.
This way journalists can continue to write about Stuffgate with eyewitness accounts of the two “rivals” attending different charitable fundraisers and being spotted here and there on the streets and the beach. And sure enough, there’s a big New York Times multi-reporter piece today, with the perfect August title: “Is This Island Big Enough for Clinton and Obama?”
Better yet, the reporters get to write about the reactions of other Vineyard vacationers to the Vineyard vacations of the two Stuffgate combatants. The story doesn’t quite accuse Clinton of perpetuating the battle by invading Obama’s vacation turf, but maybe they’re saving that for the weekend.
