Former President Clinton appeared before a sold-out audience Wednesday to discuss his new book, The President Is Missing, written with James Patterson.

She has prowled Island bookstores, gone crabbing in the Oyster Pond and pored over old records stored in the vault at the Edgartown town hall. Hillary Clinton’s ties to Martha’s Vineyard were forged well before she sought political office for herself.

A line of people eager to greet Mrs. Clinton stretched all the way to the Steamship Authority wharf just before the rainy-day event Wednesday at the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven. The former Secretary of State and longtime Island visitor was noncommittal about a run for the presidency.

Former President Swings

To Island for Day of Golf

Former President Bill Clinton was on-Island yesterday for a spot of golf, among other orders of business, according to sources.

Mr. Clinton arrived early Monday by plane, carrying a bag of golf clubs, and was expected to fly out late last night. Neither his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, nor his daughter, Chelsea, was travelling with him.

Sen. Barack Obama should consider his defeated rival for the Democratic party presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton, as his running mate in November, political analyst David Gergen told a Vineyard audience on Wednesday.

Without tough political fighters like Senator Clinton working with him, Mr. Gergen said, Senator Obama risks being overwhelmed by the same Republican attack machine which had so effectively “Swift-boated” John Kerry’s bid.

What began last August, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came here as the leading Democratic presidential candidate to raise money and woo Vineyard voters, has since deteriorated into an unseemly and tedious slugfest that does no credit to her party’s selection process. Indeed, her rejection by every one of the Island’s six towns, and the subsequent elevation of Sen.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday called the Bush administration incompetent, the federal Katrina response an embarrassment and the national health care crisis a moral imperative.

Whistle Stop Weekend Begins

Two Presidential Hopefuls Stage Fundraisers This Weekend; Hillary
Clinton Will Take Tabernacle Center Stage

By MIKE SECCOMBE

In the three-way contest for the hearts, minds and wallets of
Democratic Party supporters on the Vineyard, Hillary Clinton, it is now
clear, is way out in front.

Over the next six days, the three front runners for the
party's Presidential nomination will hold events on the Island:
John Edwards this evening, Mrs. Clinton on Saturday and Barack Obama
next Wednesday.

Hillary Clinton's Book Signing Draws a Good-Humored Crowd

By ALEXIS TONTI

At 7:30 Saturday morning, the line of people waiting for tickets for
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's book signing had become so unwieldy
that the police department asked the Bunch of Grapes, which had been
scheduled to open at nine, to let people in early.

President Clinton Returns for Short Visit

Former President William Clinton will arrive on Martha's
Vineyard today for a long weekend with his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), and daughter Chelsea.

The family will stay at the Chilmark home of Kenneth H. Iscol, a
cellular-telephone industry executive. Mr. Clinton will celebrate his
56th birthday here on Monday.

The Clintons first visited the Island in 1993 and except for 1996
have returned to its shores every year since.