Hillary’s ‘3am girl’ is a Barack supporter

Hillary Clinton's campaign has has a rude awakening: the child asleep in the controversial '3am ad', which questioned whether Barack Obama is fit to run the country in an emergency, turns out to be a 17-year-old high school girl who is a fervent supporter of Obama and feels she has been used in a "cheap hit" by the Clinton camp.

Casey Knowles was only eight when the 10-year-old clip, originally produced for a rail company, was filmed. The Clinton campaign bought the stock footage from Getty Images, using it to accompany a narrator describing a phone ringing in the White House and asking: "It’s 3am and your children are safely asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"

Although much-maligned by rivals for its scare-mongering tactics, the ad is credited with helping Clinton win the crucial Texas primary and, in effect, rescuing her candidacy bid. (Continued below)

Despite the controversy raging last week, the teenager was unaware of it until she saw a spoof version by satirist Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. "My brother was like, 'Is that Casey?' And we just erupted," Knowles said on ABC's Good Morning America. "Sure enough, it's me."

But Knowles, who will be 18 and eligible to vote in the November election, called the ad a "cheap hit" and said: "I really prefer Obama’s message of looking forward to a bright future.” She has been campaigning for Obama since she attended a Seattle rally in February 8, where she admits she cried and trembled after shaking his hand.