Bill Clinton spoke at three Southern California church services this morning–and would have done another were it not for Super Bowl plans. From the Los Angeles Times:

With Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigning in Minnesota and Missouri, her husband visited three churches in Gardena, Norwalk and Los Angeles this morning but canceled a fourth appearance to fly to New Mexico to watch the Super Bowl with Gov. Bill Richardson, his former Energy secretary and his wife’s former rival for the Democratic nomination. Richardson has not endorsed a candidate.

Talking to the congregations, Clinton did not mention the controversy over his public comments before and after the Jan. 26 primary in South Carolina, in which he dismissed Obama’s depiction of his record opposing the Iraq war as a “fairy tale,” and in the aftermath of Obama’s victory pointed out that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson had also won the state but failed to move ahead in his quests for the Democratic nomination.
Sounding chastened, Clinton talked about the election as the proverbial embarrassment of riches, saying he had waited his whole life to vote for an African American for president and just as long to vote for a woman.
“I say that to remind us that we have to find a way to choose without division. To disagree without discord. To celebrate the shattering of all these phony categories that have kept Americans apart too long,” Clinton told about 500 people at Brookins Community AME Church in Los Angeles. “We respect the choices that you make in this election. And if you can’t be for her, we honor that.”

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