Geraldine Ferraro, the Democrats’ 1984 vice-presidential nominee and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, triggered the latest campaign firestorm yesterday by saying Barack Obama had been successful only because he is black man.

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position,” Ms Ferraro, 72, said. She added: “And if he was a woman of any colour 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.”

The Obama campaign called the remarks, given to the dailybreeze.com political website, “outrageous and offensive”. They emerged on the day of the Mississippi primary, where Mr Obama is heavily favoured over Mrs Clinton because the majority of the state’s registered Democrats are African-American.

Susan Rice, Mr Obama’s foreign policy adviser and herself an African-American, said: “I think if Senator Clinton is serious about putting an end to statements that have racial implications . . . then she ought to repudiate this comment.”

A race like a crackpot Dynasty

The contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton matches any fiction

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Last week another foreign policy adviser to Mr Obama, Samantha Power, was forced to quit after calling Mrs Clinton a “monster”. Dr Rice said Ms Ferraro’s comments were “far worse”.

Howard Wolfson, a Clinton spokesman, said of Ms Ferraro: “We disagree with her.”

In a conference call with reporters, David Axelrod, Mr Obama’s chief strategist, called Ms Ferraro’s comments part of an “insidious, growing and disturbing pattern” from the Clinton campaign.

The latest row over Mr Obama’s race came the day after John McCain, the Republican nominee, was forced once again to denounce remarks by a supporter that focused on the Illinois senator’s middle name of “Hussein”.

Steve King, a Republican Iowa congressman, said on Friday: “I will tell you that if [Mr Obama] is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaeda . . . will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this war on terror.”

Jill Hazelbaker, a McCain spokeswoman, said: “The senator rejects the type of politics that degrades our civics . . . he could not be clearer on how he views these types of comments, and obviously that view extends to Congressman King’s statements.”

Mr Obama’s Kenyan father was Muslim, but not religious. He left the family when his son was 2. The Illinois senator is a Christian and has never been Muslim.

For the first time, Mr Obama made a direct accusation that the Clinton campaign had been responsible for last month’s leaking of a photograph of him wearing traditional Somali dress — including a turban — during a visit to the country in 2006.

He told a rally in Jackson, Mississippi: “When your campaign starts leaking photographs of me when I’m travelling overseas to make people afraid, that’s not real change.”

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