Geraldine Ferraro points out that Obama is… black!

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s camp has called on his rival Hillary Clinton to fire history-blazing supporter Geraldine Ferraro, after she put the Illinois Senator’s stunning rise down to his race.

The latest controversy comes as primary voters in Mississippi cast their ballots in the latest instalment of the dramatic Democratic White House race, with Senator Obama tipped for another victory.

Ms Ferraro, who sits on Senator Clinton’s finance committee and has spoken at her rallies, sparked the firestorm when she was quoted by a California newspaper as saying:

“I think what America feels about a woman becoming president takes a very secondary place to Obama’s campaign – to a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against.

“For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.

“And if he was a woman he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.”