Take anyone on this board. There aren't that many degrees of separation between you and the nearest bigot/kook/hatemonger/ignoramus. That goes double for politicians.
Yes, exactly. And given that both ends of the political spectrum in America have affiliations with reprehensible groups, it's virtually inevitable that every politician has some association to somebody that is questionable.
As I said, I'm not entirely comfortable with the degrees of separation between Obama and Farrakhan, because I think so lowly of the latter, but there's nothing in Obama's message that even hints at concern on this for me. It was said in this discussion that Obama should come out and specifially speak against the things that Farrakhan stands for. I think Obama does that nearly every time he takes the stage.