“You definitely knew who the candidate was in the room,” said Mr. Reid, who attended the party.
The dinner portion of the event—attendance, $4,600—was given in the “farmhouse,” a giant amphitheater with a professional-grade sound system.
It was a similar scene the following morning at the Patricof pancake feast, which was, according to sources, attended by roughly 500 people paying $500 a head.
Mr. Clinton, wearing a polo shirt with the presidential number “42” on it, limited himself to a short introduction.
“He definitely played the role of supportive husband,” said one man who attended the Patricofs’ pancake fund-raiser.
Barbara Layton, the politically active owner of Babette’s, noted that it is “very evident” that Hillary Clinton “holds her own” at gatherings like the one she attended at Mr. Perelman’s.
That isn’t always the case.
On Sunday, while Mrs. Clinton attempted a quick shopping venture at Roberta Freymann on Newtown Lane in East Hampton, her husband stopped into Ms. Layton’s restaurant.
“Bill walked in and the place went into an uproar,” said Ms. Layton. “An uproar. And it was so funny, because I thought they were both coming in, and everybody was standing in their seats and on their chairs, and I said, ‘The next president of the United States is about to walk in’—and in walks Bill Clinton,” she recalled, with a laugh. “And everybody was delighted. He just came in, he worked the room. Everybody was clapping. And he came into the kitchen, tasted one of the sweet potato fries, and I said, ‘Do you want to take one with you?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, wrap them up for me.’ So I wrapped up the sweet potato fries for him and walked him out. And everybody was just all over him outside, like it was the first day, like it was back in 1998.”
One almost gets the impression that it’s the sort of thing Bill Clinton might enjoy. But, to hear him talk about it at the fund-raiser on Friday night, he’s just doing his duty.
“I want you to believe that if we were not married and Hillary asked me to leave Chappaqua, New York, and haul myself down to Long Island and be at this event tonight and speak for her or do anything else, I would do it,” he said. “Because I believe by far that she is the best qualified person.”
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