A RED, WHITE & BLUE DAY: CLINTON-GORE BUS TOUR WINDS THROUGH REGION

You can get a whole new perspective on the president of the United States when you spend an afternoon tagging along behind him. I got that opportunity Friday when President Bill Clinton, his wife, Hillary, Vice President Al Gore, his wife, Tipper, and me -- went on a tour of Southern Illinois.

Now I've covered a presidential rally before, when Clinton stopped at the University of Florida where I was a student and intern for the university's information services. I spent that time in the crowd, shooting pictures from ground level and recording his speech for my story. I thought that was pretty interesting.

This time I was given the opportunity to travel with the president's bus entourage from Cape Girardeau to Cairo. I stood behind the podium as Clinton and Gore gave their speeches. I wandered around where only those with a certain tag hanging around their necks could wander and encountered the faces of the Secret Service, the president's staff and the politicians away from center stage.

I also got to be a minor celebrity, even if it was because of where I was instead of who I was.

Traveling behind the president's bus, in one that looks just like the ones ahead of it, meant I got to see what the president sees. There were thousands of people lining the roadways between Cape Girardeau and Cairo. Most of them were supporters, or just excited because the president was passing close by.

But some weren't there to support Clinton, some had another agenda. One man, in East Cape Girardeau, stood on the hood of his car with a Dole-Kemp sign in his right hand and was giving the president a one-finger salute with his left. On board the press bus, it was agreed that he was the only "Jerk" anyone had seen that day.

Even those who were holding signs in support of the president's political opponent, or those that decried the evils of abortion, did not show any disrespect to the president.

One man, at the very edge of East Cape Girardeau, made up for his neighbor's indiscretion by standing alone on top of the tool chest in the bed of his pickup truck with his hat pressed over his heart.

Those along the roads would wave as the buses passed, not sure of which was the one carrying the president. Some had a searching look on their face as their eyes quickly scanned the windows of the passing vehicles hoping Clinton would be staring out of one.

Few of the journalists on my bus waved back, but some did. All of them watched and took notes, jotting down some of the more clever signs to include in their stories.

Occasionally, at the stops, it was possible to see the strain of campaigning on the faces of Gore and Clinton. At a steamy Capaha Park, Gore left a gathering near the MTV bus and was heading back to the president's ride when he stopped and rested for a minute while leaning on one of the Secret Service's vans. He toweled the sweat from his face, took a deep breath then moved on with a confident step and a cheerful wave to the crowd.

The incident that brought the president's life most clearly into focus was one that happened early in the day. At the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport I got to shake hands with the president just after he disembarked from Air Force One. That single gesture seemed to make Clinton real, he was a human being.

After he boarded his bus, and I got on mine, we drove off down the runway to the exit. As we passed the control tower, two FBI sharpshooters dressed entirely in black with high-powered rifles in their hands looked down on us from the very top. That made the president seem very real, and his life a little too unreal.