Bill Clinton: Will respect Jewish holidays, then 'hustle up ... cracker vote' in Florida
In an interview with CNN's Larry King airing tonight, Bill Clinton offered a slightly unusual reason for postponing his campaigning for Obama: The Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, which he's not known to observe.
"When [the Clinton Global Initiative] is over, and after the Jewish holidays, which follow close on it, I intend to go to Florida, to Ohio, to northeast Pennsylvania, and to Nevada at a minimum," he said. "I may do events in Arkansas depending on what the Democratic Party does down there. And I've agreed to do some fundraising for them in California and New York."
"Are you kind of feeling Jewish that you're waiting until after the Jewish holidays?" King asked, according to a CNN transcript.
"No. But I think it would be -- if we're trying to win in Florida, it may be that," Clinton began, before discussing his real Florida target: "You know, they think that because of who I am and where my politic[al] base has traditionally been, they may want me to go sort of hustle up what Lawton Chiles used to call the 'cracker vote' there."
"But Senator Obama also has a big stake in doing well in the Jewish community in Florida, where Hillary did very well and where I did very well. And I just think respecting the holidays is a good thing to do," he said. |
