Phil Klinkner, Associate Dean of Students for Academics and the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, was quoted in the Newsday article, "Battleground: The white working class; Crucial voting bloc in the fall; Where Obama trails in votes" (4/27/08).
The article discusses Barack Obama's white working class vote and how the racial divide affects the current Democratic election for Obama. Newsday noted that Hillary and Bill Clinton deny that they had ever done anything to use Obama's race against him. In response Klinkner was quoted as saying, "The Clintons are not naïve about race. They come from the upper South where the whole game for white politicians was that you max-out black support and turnout, but that you keep enough of a distance that white voters aren't turned off. Bill Clinton played that game like a master in 1992, and he's trying to do it again."
The article discusses Barack Obama's white working class vote and how the racial divide affects the current Democratic election for Obama. Newsday noted that Hillary and Bill Clinton deny that they had ever done anything to use Obama's race against him. In response Klinkner was quoted as saying, "The Clintons are not naïve about race. They come from the upper South where the whole game for white politicians was that you max-out black support and turnout, but that you keep enough of a distance that white voters aren't turned off. Bill Clinton played that game like a master in 1992, and he's trying to do it again."
