AND I QUOTE / What Political Books Are Saying : RUNNING IN PLACE: How Bill Clinton Disappointed America,<i> By Richard Reeves (Andrews & McMeel: $8.95, paper; 107 pp.)</i>

“Being President of the United States has not always been as much fun as William Jefferson Clinton thought it would be in all the years he tried to figure out how to get the job. He . . . could be called the first true president of a new American public opinion democracy, acting as a facilitator for the wobbly will of the people. He accepted a 2% shift in the overall congressional vote as the marching orders for the last two years of his term. . . . The people had spoken, and whether or not they knew what they were talking about, the President was not about to argue with them.”

Chaos theory in the Oval Office, synthesized by a veteran columnist and biographer. If you feel vertigo in this age of change, imagine the same forces, gravely magnified, pressing down on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. As portrayed here, Clinton has no aim to lead. Rather, he thrills just to be at the center of things. Like other baby boomers, he grew up questioning authority; now he resists exercising it.

In conclusion: A sharp, lucid reminder that you can lead from the front like the pied piper, or from behind like the shepherd. But trying to move things from the middle sends even your friends scattering.