First Lady Shows Plenty of Zest in All-but-Declared Race : Politics: Hillary Rodham Clinton is sounding more and more like a committed candidate, greeting crowds of fans with enthusiasm.

Her schedule says she’s on vacation.

But as surely as the leaves are starting to turn in the bucolic Finger Lakes region of New York, with each passing day First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is acting and sounding more like a full-time candidate for political office.

No longer confining herself to a “listening tour” around the Empire State as she contemplates a bid to succeed Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Clinton is taking her quest to a new level. On issues local and national, she is beginning to speak out, although offering few specifics.

As she explained at a private fund-raiser in remarks overheard by reporters: “What I’m hearing [New Yorkers] tell me . . . is, the issues I care about are the issues voters care about.”

And with gaggles of admirers clamoring for her attention, even in an area where Republicans outnumber Democrats 3 to 1, she is pressing the flesh with the elan of a veteran office-seeker.

Clinton had been showing off her stump style from the very moment Air Force One landed in nearby Syracuse on Monday. Beaming with delight, the first lady schmoozed for nearly an hour with 2,300 welcomers at Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

With husband and daughter in tow, she then went straight to the New York State Fair, where she cuddled babies, gulped down two glasses of chocolate milk, posed for snapshots, signed autographs, yukked it up with well-wishers, then left with a container of chicken and apples.

On Wednesday, en route from their borrowed lakeside house to visit historic sites in the area, the first couple stopped in the picturesque village of Skaneateles for tea and coffee, and again mingled with well-wishers before moving on. Today, Hillary Clinton is scheduled to attend two more fund-raisers.

Although her quest seems to be generating generally positive reviews, it remains to be seen whether the initial shows of support will translate into votes in 2000, should she run.

A spokesman for Clinton’s exploratory committee said she may not announce a formal decision until early next year. In the meantime, he said, “I think she’s certainly going to be doing stuff that’s going to make her seem like a candidate.”

Among those who approve of her style is one of the more gifted politicians of her time.

“I think she’s doing pretty well without any help from me,” President Clinton said wistfully, standing back as his wife, with relish, worked another crowd along a protective rope line at the State Fair.

However reluctant the president may be to yield the spotlight, it’s clear this is payback time to the woman who stood by him during his sex scandals and waged a vigorous behind-the-scenes campaign on Capitol Hill against his removal from office.

With Hillary Clinton all but certain to become the first first lady to run for public office, the president is aggressively campaigning for her, with a vigor he once reserved mostly for himself.

“I’m telling you, of all the people I have ever known in public life, the ablest, the smartest, the most passionately dedicated is the person who wants to be the next United States senator from New York,” Clinton told Democratic donors on Long Island.

Hillary Clinton’s own comments suggest that she is an all-but-declared candidate. Thanking Democratic donors last weekend at another Long Island fund-raiser, she said: “After a lifetime spent on behalf of issues and causes and candidates that I believed in, and even after, yes, the last 6 1/2 years, I still believe in public service.”

Referring to the nation’s economic prosperity, the first lady added: “I like the progress we’ve made. . . . and I want to be a part of continuing in that.”

In various appearances around the state, Clinton has acknowledged that much of upstate New York has not shared fully in that prosperity.

“I’m certainly not satisfied that here in upstate New York, where so much of America’s industrial and economic strength started . . . there have been too many people who have had to leave, looking for opportunities elsewhere, and that there are not enough good jobs for the hard-working people who live here,” she said during one public appearance.

Besides talking about expanding access to health insurance and improving public education, Clinton is articulating a variety of local concerns, such as high air fares and utility costs in this region.

And by merely attending the State Fair, Clinton won praise for becoming the only first lady ever to do so. When told that it was also Dairy Day and Seniors Day, she happily chugged some milk, talked about eating cheese and greeted plenty of seniors.

With the spotlight increasingly focused on his wife, the president at times seemed almost a bystander. “You know, it’s pretty nice to go to a lunch like this when you’re the only one not running for anything,” he said, somewhat unconvincingly.