WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama's campaign wants Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to remove former New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro from her campaign for suggesting that Obama has made it to where he is in the presidential race because he's black.

In an interview published Friday by The Daily Breeze newspaper of Torrance, Calif., Ferraro said, "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

She also said that Obama has had it easy because of a "very sexist media" that has been "uniquely hard" on Clinton.

Ferraro was Democrat Walter Mondale's vice presidential running mate in 1984.

Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod says Clinton needs to "police the tone of this campaign" by removing Ferraro from her position and denouncing what the former congresswoman said.

Last week, an adviser to Obama resigned after calling Clinton "a monster."