A Chesa-peek at Bill Clinton's Day

(CBS)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On a day where Hillary Clinton's campaign made the biggest news, her husband's tour on the stump through the upcoming primary state of Maryland was much more low-key.

As news broke that campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle was stepping down and as Barack Obama was declared winner of the Maine caucuses, former president Bill Clinton attended his final event of the day on his wife's behalf at a retirement community in Silver Spring, Md. He remained mum on Doyle's departure, but he did offer an explanation as to why his wife tends to fare poorly in caucus states.

"She's won most of the primaries and lost most of the caucuses - and I did too in 1992 - because her campaign's broad appeal is largely to people who need a president," he said to an audience of two hundred elderly voters.

"Very often they are working and busy and don't go to these caucuses. In Washington state - where she was ahead in the public opinion polls and got killed in the caucuses - the day of the caucuses, the American Nurses Association announced that they were endorsing her for President - apparently the first time they had done that. And she had six nurses there, and they all said how sorry they were they couldn't caucus for her, that they had to work that day."

Clinton started his day at, not one but two, churches in Washington, D.C. and Bowie, Md. At both stops he admitted that he had always wanted to vote for an African-American and a woman. And in a departure from his pro-Hillary bias, the former President urged the churchgoers to follow their hearts, recognizing that the "decision is in the hands of the people and whatever you decide, we shall honor."

"Just pray about it and do what you think is right," he told the congregation in Bowie. "Do what you think is right for your country and for the future."

And being that both events this morning consisted of largely black audiences, Clinton was asked by a reporter in Bowie how his wife could energize the African-American base.

"I think they are perfectly energized," he said. "And I think they're doing what they think is right. And I want them to know that we want their votes and support. We gotta hold this party together to keep everybody going forward."