THE Clintons are heading for the beach this summer along with the Hamptons moneyed elite. Next weekend they will be attending five fundraisers that could collect $1m for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign war chest.

The Hamptons are where Wall Street meets Hollywood on New York’s east coast and where Steven Spielberg, Gwyneth Paltrow and Julianne Moore mingle on the dunes with billionaires such as Ron Perelman, the Revlon magnate and former husband of Ellen Barkin, the star of Ocean’s Thirteen.

“There is money in those beaches and everybody is out there raking in,” said R Couri Hay, society editor of Hamptons magazine. “The Hamptons are the playground of the rich and richer, where the movie stars and moguls and just plain rich go to spend the summer.”

He predicts that the Hamptons’ notoriously overcrowded roads will come to a standstill next weekend: “The Clintons are going to be blocking the traffic as they go from party to party.”

Perelman will be hosting cocktails on Saturday evening where, for $1,000, relative riffraff can meet Bill and Hill and gawp at the tycoon’s luxury home and celebrity friends. For $4,600, the maximum contribution permitted under federal rules, guests will be able to attend a more select dinner with the world’s most famous power couple.

“If you’ve got the money, you’re in,” said Couri Hay. “People want to go to rich people’s homes. It feels exclusive and it is. It’s not like going to a nightclub. You’re meeting a former president and a senator and they walk out with bags of cash.”

Morris Reid, a Democratic political consultant, will be hosting a barbecue for the Clintons the night before, hoping to attract a younger, hipper crowd. The minimum admission is $250, but for $1,000 you can attend a special VIP function in a private room and go home with a photograph of you and the Clintons to show off to your friends.

For $5,000 you can join the “host committee”, said Reid, “and get as much face time and photo-time with them as you want”.

Reid expects to raise up to $200,000 for Clinton’s campaign. “It’s all about persuading your friends to pony-up the money, even if they don’t believe in the candidate per se,” he said. “You might be for Hillary, but give to Barack [Obama] as well.”

Couri Hay is a Republican but has already promised his vote to Clinton and co-hosted a fundraiser in Manhattan for her.

“She adds to the political conversation right now because she could be the first woman president,” he said. “And Hillary, after all, is a New Yorker.”

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, is also raising money in the Hamptons for his Republican campaign. He will be the co-chairman of Southampton hospital’s local gala on Saturday.

“You can be sure he will be inviting guests back for a hot dog and barbecue,” said Couri Hay.

However, it is the Clintons who rule the Hamptons, which tends to attract wealthy liberal Democrats to its shores. Reid, an influential figure in the African American community, said he had also offered to hold a fundraiser for Obama but the Illinois senator was not interested. “I thought it was weird. Perhaps he thinks it is too much Hillary country but he is wrong,” he said. “There’s an appetite for both of them out here.”

Clinton and Obama have been engaged in their most bitter dispute to date over remarks made by Obama during a televised CNN/YouTube debate last week. The antiwar Obama said he would be willing to meet Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-il and Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad, the ostracised leaders, “without preconditions”.

After Clinton called him irresponsible and naive, he shot back that it was naive to have backed the Iraq war and said her policies were merely a continuation of “Bush-Cheney lite”. An Obama aide confided, “I think we’ve got her on her heels”, but most observers concluded that Obama had lost the exchange and may be too inexperienced - his biggest weakness – for prime time.

Obama has sought to distance himself from campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists and has eagerly presented himself as the candidate of “change” who is inspiring small donors to contribute. He is the surprise winner, so far, of the so-called money primary but his claim to have attracted a staggering 258,000 individual donors was undermined when it emerged that his team was counting everybody who bought an Obama 08 T-shirt or bumper sticker.

Clinton’s team is determined to catch up. Last weekend Ann Lewis, a veteran Clinton operative, used an article in The Washington Post about Clinton’s hint of cleavage on display in the Senate as an opportunity to raise more funds. “Can you believe it?” she wrote in an online letter to supporters. “I’ve seen some off-topic press coverage, but talking about body parts? That is grossly inappropriate.” The letter concluded with the usual appeal: “Click to contribute . . .”

Fred Thompson is entering the money race with his first Washington fundraiser, which is being hosted by Republican movers and shakers who have strong ties to previous campaigns, such as Mary Matalin, a former aide to Dick Cheney, the vice-president. But Thompson’s campaign has been beset by some of the staff turmoil which is dogging Senator John McCain.

Thompson recently changed his campaign manager and also lost his deputy campaign manager and the services of Sam LeBlond, a young Bush nephew. One conservative commentator said that the actor and former senator for Tennessee was in danger of appearing “ridiculous”, especially as he is still delaying his formal entry into the White House race.

Clinton is gaining the grudging respect of conservatives for running a tough, perfectionist campaign. Her success in staying on top of the polls is drawing new donors to her side.

“People want to give to Barack because they are inspired by him but they are giving to the Clintons because they are practical,” said Reid.

Couri Hay wishes, nevertheless, that Bill would pass on some of his magic to Hill. “Much as I like Hillary, I wish someone would give her lessons in drama,” he said. “Bill should give her some pillow-talk.”

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