"I felt my own pain that day," Watters says.

The pain was the sort you feel when dollar bills go up in smoke. Watters, who says he's nonpartisan "but can be (partisan) for a fee," is earning a handsome living from Clinton.

And come 1996, Watters will be praying for four more years.

Almost everyone has a double somewhere. Watters just happens to be a dead ringer for the president of the United States. You can make serious money that way.

More than the original, in fact. Clinton's $250,000 salary is about a third of what Watters is getting for his look-alike appearances on TV and at business meetings and trade shows.

A Chill of Recognition

Watters, 36, was a real estate agent in Tampa, Fla., back in the 1992 presidential primary season when he took a gander at the candidate from Arkansas and felt a chill.

"I was watching CNN and all of a sudden I saw a face that looked might familiar to me," Watters said by telephone from Tampa. "It was my face. I see it in the mirror all the time."

Soon afterward, a co-worker noted the resemblance and told Watters that celebrity look-alikes are well-paid.

"I thought,'Ka-ching!'" Watters said, this time doing a fine impression of a cash register. He put his photo in circulation and soon landed an agent.

By the time Clinton occupied the White House, Watters was on his way to a new career that's now carried him to national TV. Playing Clinton, he's a recurring performer on the syndicated comedy show "the Newz," which airs at 11 weeknights on KBHK (Channel 44).

He's doing commercials, too. Viewers in Mississippi know Watters' Bill Clinton as the pitchman for vinyl siding. In Connecticut, he's done spots for a water purification company.

Watters does make a few physical alternations to plaly Clinton. He dyes his blond hair and uses silver hair spray to replicate Clinton's salt-and-pepper look. He also wears shoe lifts to approximate Clinton's 6-feet-2 height.

No Pasty Thighs

As for the body frame, Watters said that "we're fairly proportional, except I don't have those big white pasty thighs."

"The voice was probably the hardest part," he said. "Quite frankly, there aren't many Rhodes scholars from Arkansas, so his accent really isn't particularly Sourthern."

In and out of airports these days, Watters has grown accustomed to seeing strangers elbow each other and point at him, and to having bemused flight attendants summon him for a presidential reading of the preflight emergency instructions.

But he's thankful that his 4-year-old son no longer points at Clinto's photo in newspapers and says, "Daddy". The real Clinton might be relieved to know that too.

Watters said he's had only one face-to-face encounter with Clinton. It was in Tampa, a week before the 1992 election. After a Clinton campaign speech, Watters worked his way through the crowd until he was within earshot of Clinton.

"Hey, Bill," he shouted, "I look just like you."

Clinton paused to scrutinize Watters.

"No," he said, "I think you're better looking."