The nation's first elected black governor said Saturday he is not ready to excuse comments former President Bill Clinton made about Barack Obama. In campaigning for his wife last month on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton called Obama's opposition to the Iraq war "a fairy tale." Clinton suggested Obama had toned down his early anti-war fervor during his 2004 Senate campaign. "Barack Obama is not a fairy tale. He is real," former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder told reporters at a Democratic fundraiser as the former president spent the day campaigning for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Richmond and three other Virginia cities.

The grandson of slaves, who was elected in 1989 in what was once the Confederate capital, endorsed Obama last month. Now Richmond's mayor, Wilder's comments still get the attention of the state's black voters, though his influence has waned since he left office 15 years ago.

Clinton also implied that an Obama victory in South Carolina would amount to a reward based on race, like the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 20 years earlier.

Wilder said the former president's comments stung him and other black voters and diminished their respect for Clinton.

"It's not just me (who) feels that; any number of people feel that," Wilder said. "A time comes and a time goes. The president has had his time."

Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Bill and Hillary Clinton both "have tremendous respect for Governor Wilder. He has been a trailblazer who made it possible for both Senators Clinton and Obama to run for president."

In stops across Virginia, Clinton was careful Saturday to avoid any comment remotely critical of his wife's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia hold primaries Tuesday.