Democrats Get Nasty As Ferraro Plays Race Card

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama assailed as "slice and dice" politics Geraldine Ferraro's assertion that he wouldn't be where he is in the presidential race if he weren't black.

It's the latest exchange in what has become a nasty back-and-forth between the two Democratic trailblazers - Obama, seeking to be the nation's first black president, and Ferraro, who was the first woman on a major party presidential ticket in 1984 - continued for a second day as they made appearances on network and cable morning news programs.

"Part of what I think Geraldine Ferraro is doing, and I respect the fact that she was a trailblazer, is to participate in the kind of slice and dice politics that's about race and about gender and about this and that, and that's what Americans are tired of because they recognize that when we divide ourselves in that way we can't solve problems," Obama said on NBC's "Today" show.

Ferraro, who was Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate, said Wednesday that her remarks were not racist and had been taken out of context. She accused Obama's campaign of twisting her remarks to undercut his rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton.

Clinton said she disagrees with Ferraro's remarks, but she has not cut ties with her as Obama did with an adviser whose comments about Clinton being a "monster" set off another firestorm.

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