After Barack Obama’s historic speech yesterday it seems the Right’s new talking point is to say he has not gone far enough in distancing himself from what they consider to be a racist church. As a case in I have heard it said in two different places, MSNBC and NPR, by republican commentators that Trinity Churches honoring of Louis Farrakhan with a life time achievement award is the equivalent of a white church honoring David Duke. Their point is that If John McCain had a 20 year association with such a church it would surely raise serious questions about his character. The crux of this argument is based on equating Duke to Farrakhan. This equilivency is erroneous. In its 150 year history the KKK has been responsible for hundreds if not thousands of lynchings of blacks. Their history of blood and violence is long and documented. Whereas The nation of Islam despite its long history of inflammatory racial and religious statements has never been responsible for any violence at all. If you are looking for someone to equate Farrakhan with on the other side then a good example would be Bob Jones, who has been quoted as saying “Blacks have never had a successful civilization.” and “Blacks were designed by God to be servants.” While such an association should be damming the right of this country freely associates themselves with such racists. I surely don’t defend Farrakhan or the nation of Islam but to equate them with Duke and the Klu Klux Klan is at best a false analogy.