Ferraro: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position"

On three separate occasions, Clinton adviser and former vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro claimed that Obama was doing well only because he was a black man. First, on February 26, on Fox News radio:

If Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this as a potential real problem for Hillary? If he were a woman... If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he's in, absolutely not.

On March 7:

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.

Ferraro later defended the comment:

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?

The Clinton campaign said that the candidate disagreed with Ferraro, but would not remove her from the campaign's finance committee. Ferraro resigned, but did not apologize. That makes senses, as not only did she repeat her comment now, but she almost the same thing in 1988:

If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race.