That Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State under George W. Bush who lend credibility to the Iraq saber-rattling the Bush administration did prior to the invasion, has endorsed Obama is worthy of celebration. But his endorsement speech on NBC is incredibly thoughtful and well worth watching. It is clear that he made his decision carefully. The decision is grounded in what he sees as a further move to the right of the Republican party and his concerns about McCain’s uncertainty about dealing with the economic crisis. He is also concerned that Palin is not at all ready to be President. What I liked most about his endorsement, though, was that he finally said what should have been the response to the “Obama is a Muslim” smear: First, of course, he set the record straight that Obama is a Christian. But then he added his thoughts on why it really shouldn’t matter whether Obama is a Muslim or not! Exactly! Powell points to a soldier who died in Iraq fighting for his country who happened to be a Muslim. I think, though, that it shouldn’t matter what religion a person subscribes to but what their personality is, how they’re address important issues etc. While I personally cannot understand subscribing to any religion, I do know enough people who are religious but who do not let their religious beliefs drip all over their decisions. So, the religion of a candidate should not matter much. Rather how much they let that religion influence their decisions and policies is what matters. Clearly, McCain/Palin let religion drive their politics to the right. And even Obama has too much religion in his campaign for me to be completely excited about him, yet, it seems to matter less than it does to the Republican ticket, especially Palin.

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