What struck me most from Colin Powell's statements in endorsing Barack Obama on Meet the Press yesterday was this quote:

Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim; he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America.

Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?

Yes, McCain corrected the woman who claimed Obama was an Arab, and he pointed out he was a Christian. But whether Obama is a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, or atheist should be irrelevant to our political discourse.

Powell gets that, and it was a major factor in his endorsement.

He also closed with a moving anecdote, describing a photo of a mother grieving at her son's grave in Arlington Cemetery. At the top of the headstone was neither a cross nor a Star of David, but the crescent moon and star representing Islam. That underscores that America is not just one religion, but many, and it is that diversity that helps make America a great nation. As says on our money, e pluribus unum - out of many, one.