Barack Obama (web|news|bio) 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. Ferraro countered Wednesday that her remarks were not racist and had been taken out of context. The back-and-forth between the two Democrat trailblazers - Obama, seeking to be the nation's first black president, and Ferraro, who was the first woman on a major party presidential ticket - 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 - a supporter and fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton (web|news|bio) - said that Obama's campaign had taken her remarks out of context and that she was merely commenting on the historic nature of his candidacy.

"I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984 if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice presidential candidate," Ferraro said on ABC's "Good Morning America.""It had nothing to do with my qualification."

The controversy began Tuesday when the national media picked up on comments Ferraro made in an interview last week with the Daily Breeze newspaper in Torrance, Calif.: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) 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."

Clinton rejected Ferraro's remarks.

"I do not agree with that," Clinton said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press, and later added, "It's regrettable that any of our supporters - on both sides, because we both have this experience - say things that kind of veer off into the personal."

"We ought to keep this on the issues. There are differences between us" on approaches to health care, energy, experience, Clinton said.