There’s really no doubt that Louis Farrakhan is a preacher of hatred; his antisemitic statements are legendary, he’s a notorious supporter of Saddam Hussein and Robert Mugabe and countless other thuggish dictators, and he toured the Middle East in 2002 giving vicious speeches against Israel and the United States in the capitals of the Arab world.

Now, Barack Obama can’t control who endorses or praises his campaign, of course, but if he cares at all about doing the right thing he’ll renounce this support from one of the most hateful, divisive figures in US politics: Farrakhan Praises Obama as ‘Hope of Entire World’.

Don’t worry, I’m not holding my breath.

CHICAGO — In his first major public address since a cancer crisis, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said that presidential candidate Barack Obama is the “hope of the entire world” that the U.S. will change for the better. The 74-year-old Farrakhan, former leader of the black Muslim group, never endorsed Obama outright, but spent much of his nearly two-hour speech Sunday to an estimated crowd of 20,000 people praising the Illinois senator.

“This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better,” he said. “This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama’s audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed.”

Farrakhan compared Obama to the religion’s founder, Fard Muhammad, who also had a white mother and black father.

“A black man with a white mother became a savior to us,” he told the crowd of mostly followers. “A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall.”

UPDATE at 2/25/08 10:32:33 am:

A reader emailed to let me know that Obama did renounce Farrakhan, in a closed meeting with Jewish community leaders in Cleveland: Obama reaches out to Jewish leaders.

I have been a consistent, before I go any further, a consistent denunciator of Louis Farrakhan, nobody challenges that. And what is true is that, recently this is probably, I guess last year. An award was given to Farrakhan for his work on behave [sic] of ex-offenders completely unrelated to his controversial statements. And I believe that was a mistake and showed a lack of sensitivity to Jewish community and I said so.