Feb 3, 2008 10:44 pm US/Pacific
Clinton Courts African-American Voters At Churches
LOS ANGELES
Former President Bill Clinton visited three Los Angeles-area churches on Sunday to help rally support for his wife's presidential bid, hoping to help reverse sinking poll numbers in the big-prize state of California.
A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign dispelled reports in the Washington Post and on CNN that Bill Clinton attended the African-American congregations to clarify remarks that he made in South Carolina, that had angered some black voters.
Clinton spokesman Luis Vizcaino said that for Bill Clinton, "going to black churches on a Sunday three days before an election is nothing unusual."
"The Clintons have always attended black churches, the Clintons have decades of relationships and of good relations with the African-American community," Vizcaino said.
In Gardena, Bill Clinton told parishioners at City of Refuge Church "I'm not against anybody," referring to Barack Obama but not mentioning him by name.
"I waited my whole life to vote for an African American for president, I waited my whole life to voter for a woman for president, and sometimes I look up to the sky and say `God, you're playing with my mind again,' " Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton's California spokesman dispelled reports by East Coast media outlets that Los Angeles Congresswoman Diane Watson had brought Clinton to her South Los Angeles district to explain what happened in South Carolina.
A Washington Post Internet report today quoted Watson as saying "there will be no need for any kind of letter" from Clinton to black parishioners, a letter she said Friday was being drafted.
Watson reportedly called the Post, asserting that Bill Clinton has no need to mend fences with black voters but would campaign "in true Bill Clinton fashion -- personally and verbally."
Lois Hill-Hale, Watson's press secretary, later said that the congresswoman wanted to ensure that the letter "was only intended to be a letter of greeting, in case the President was not able to speak at the churches."
As Clinton worshipped at the Brookings Community African Methodist Episcopalian Church in South Los Angeles, worshippers at the First AME Church a few miles away said he was not invited there.
"Pastor told us at Bible study that he (Clinton) called but that he couldn't come," according to parishioner Carlotta Patterson, a 35-year-old Obama supporter from Cerritos. She said she was swayed to Obama after the Illinois senator came to visit First AME a year ago.
First AME Pastor Brenda Lamothe said the church welcomes everyone, but did not want Clinton to speak from the pulpit during a campaign, which could endanger the church's tax-exempt status.
Some are accusing Bill Clinton of using the "race card" by pointing out that Jesse Jackson won the South Carolina Democratic presidential primaries in 1984 and 1988. This comment was then interpreted equating Barack Obama with Jackson, who was viewed by some as an unelectable candidate, especially among white voters.
Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in South Carolina with 55 percent of the vote to her 27 percent.
Clinton had initially intended to appear at four African American churches in the L.A. area, but ran late and had to cancel a final appearance at Second Baptist Church in Inglewood.
On Monday, the Clinton campaign will have a 7:30 appearance at Santa Ana College, followed by appearances in Sacramento, Stockton and San Francisco.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
