To a degree that is hardly apparent from the slow pace of events--but is central to the White House strategy of delay-- Kenneth Starr is in a desperate race against time.

Starr's evident desire to present Congress with the strongest possible legal case for impeaching President Clinton is at odds with Starr's need to move before the political calendar makes any such case irrelevant.

The reason is that the closer Starr comes to Jan. 20, 2001, without taking action, the more his investigation--which started four years and $ 40 million ago, under then-independent counsel Robert Fiske--will look like the pointless pursuit of a man well on his way to lame-duckery.

As a result, each passing day is a victory for the President and a defeat for Starr--whether Starr's prosecutors have spent that day grilling Vernon Jordan before a grand jury, fencing with White House lawyers over executive privilege, trying to get Secret Service agents to say wh at they saw Clinton do, fending off rumors about their own sex lives, or investigating who leaked what to whom.

Starr's investigation has only three possible outcomes, as far as Clinton is concerned. 1) The independent counsel could make a final report detailing what he has learned and why it does not warrant any type of proceeding against the President. 2) He could seek to have the President indicted and put on trial. And, 3) he could invoke Section 595(c) of the independent counsel statute, which states: ''An independent counsel shall advise the House of Representatives of any substantial and credible information . . . that may constitute grounds for impeachment.''