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Key Clinton backer quits
13/03/2008 11:02 - (SA)
Chicago - A key Hillary Clinton ally quit her White House campaign on Wednesday after comments about Barack Obama stirred an ugly race row, as the Democratic foes dug in for a testy six-week haul to their next nominating clash.
Obama, vying to become the first African-American president, expressed frustration that race kept emerging as a campaign issue, and also rejected the former first lady's claims he is not ready to be commander in chief.
Fresh tensions simmered between the camps a day after Obama's landslide victory in Mississippi's primary - the last showdown before Pennsylvania votes next month - extended his lead in their epic White House struggle.
Remarks 'ridiculous'
Geraldine Ferraro, a Democratic party icon, severed ties with Clinton's finance committee, campaign sources said, after a two-day row sparked by her comment that: "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."
Obama on Wednesday branded the remarks "ridiculous" and "wrong headed" and his campaign had previously demanded Ferraro's ouster, after one of its aides last week was forced to quit after calling Clinton a "monster".
"If you pulled out a handbook of how to weigh your assets and liabilities in a presidential race - I don't think my name or my skin colour would be in the asset column," Obama said at a press conference here.
Ferraro, the first woman on a presidential ticket when she was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1984, told Clinton in a letter released by CNN: "The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen."
Clinton said on Tuesday she did not agree with the remarks and regretted them, but did not call on Ferraro to stand down.
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