Two weeks ago, President Clinton stood at a podium outside the White House's north entrance to welcome a U.S. delegation home from Haiti.
Saturday, that same north entrance was sprayed with a gunman's bullets.
If the motives for the shooting spree at the White House were murky Sunday, one thing seems increasingly clear: This president - who loves to mingle with crowds and chafes at being trapped in the Secret Service's protective bubble - is probably about to change his ways.
That may mean no more meandering across Lafayette Park on his way home from church, as he did a few weekends ago, with tourists flocking just feet away. And no more north entrance appearances.
The shooting was the second frightening White House security breach in six weeks. Last month, a Maryland man crashed a stolen plane onto the lawn, killing himself.
"These two incidents may save this president's life at some point, because he's had a wakeup call," says terrorism expert Neil Livingstone.
Clinton was unharmed in both incidents. But today, the yellow police tape, shattered windows and bullet pockmarks in the White House walls are startling testimony to his vulnerability in the place where he's supposed to be safest.
White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers insists Clinton has complete confidence in the Secret Service and says, "There has been . . . no change in the president's schedule. . . . Business goes on here as usual."
Clinton did not jog Sunday and did not go to church, though he attended a Sunday evening event at Ford's Theatre - the site of Abraham Lincoln's 1865 assassination.
Neither White House scare seems to have been calculated. But each highlights the grim reality: It is impossible to totally safeguard him.
"Truth be known, there's no absolute way of protecting him. The safest place for him to be would be in an underground bunker," says terrorism expert Robert Kupperman.
Secret Service officials have acknowledged only one change they might recommend in the wake of Saturday's shooting: the oft-proposed closing of Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs along the north side of the White House grounds.
It would be a security breach, they say, to even discuss other measures.
"I wouldn't give people the combination to a lock of some important property," says Ron Noble, Treasury Department undersecretary in charge of the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. "And I wouldn't give the world . . . the details to security measures regarding White House."
Experts' suggestions for Clinton:
-- Appearances at large, public events - like today's campaign rallies in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh - could be limited or abandoned.
-- He could, and probably does, wear a bullet-proof vest if he's in a particularly vulnerable situation.
-- He could stop jogging around Washington's monuments and stick to running on White House grounds.
-- Bullet-proof glass could be attached to the iron gates along the White House perimeter - in addition to the windows in the West Wing. Most are already bulletproof.
Saturday, when witnesses say Francisco Duran pulled a rifle from his coat, stuck it through the fence and started spraying rounds, Clinton was upstairs in his private quarters watching a football game.
"He was not in any danger," says Noble of the president. Hillary Rodham Clinton was in California; their daughter, Chelsea, was away.
It took Duran 10 seconds, the Secret Service estimates, to squeeze off 20 to 30 rounds. Though two passersby subdued him, there has so far been no complaint about agents' reaction time. Several agents leapt over the fence and arrived as Duran was wrestled to the ground; more agents arrived immediately.
At a Saturday dinner, Clinton said the bullets' crack "blended in with the cheers" of the game. He spoke at the Washington Hilton Hotel, where President Ronald Reagan was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt.
Despite recent White House security breaches, there have been no direct attempts on Clinton's life.
Security has been tightened in recent years at the White House, with the addition of large concrete barriers to prevent suicide bombers driving a vehicle into the building. But pedestrian access remains open.
Saturday's gunfire came from the sidewalk along Pennsylvania Avenue, a busy thoroughfare and a favorite spot for tourists to view the White House and pose for pictures. It's also a gathering place for demonstrators and the homeless.
That's why the Secret Service is renewing its suggestion the street be closed. But Jerry Parr, a retired Secret Service agent who was at Reagan's side in the 1981 shooting, says the idea isn't realistic.
"It's just very difficult," he says, "unless you want to put Humvees out there and the military."
George Stephanopoulos, a senior Clinton adviser, said on NBC's Meet the Press that Clinton would not like sealing off Pennsylvania Avenue.
"The president has always said that the White House is the people's house," Stephanopoulos said. "We want to be as open as possible."
Last month's plane crash called attention to sophisticated, anti-terrorism measures in the White House complex, like movement sensors and anti-aircraft weapons.
But just as that flukey incident demonstrated the mansion's vulnerability from the air, Saturday's shooting showed its vulnerability to a determined lone gunman.
Chuck Vance, a former Secret Service agent who runs a security consulting firm, notes that when the White House was completed early in the 19th century, it was surrounded by a very different city.
"You've got drive-by shootings a mile away," Vance says. "The White House has always attracted people who are mentally unstable. The difference is now people are bringing guns with them. It's just a more dangerous world out there."
The investigation may conclude that Duran is a troubled man who didn't really intend to try to kill the president. But Saturday's incident, like the plane crash, is prompting genuine concern: What if the attacker had been a skilled terrorist?
"I worry about broader security issues," says Kupperman. "There are sophisticated terrorist groups out there and sure they're paying attention to this. . . . What this should be doing is telling us these are the risks we're facing."
Vance hopes the shooting will force Clinton and his aides to make security their top priority.
"You wonder," he says, "what it's going to take to get their attention."
