The McCain-Palin campaign has wrapped itself in the American flag. Actually, it turns out that they and the Republican Party that they represent may be out of sync with the real America--the America that includes Muslim patriots who die for their country just like all American patriots are prepared to do. In his dramatic endorsement of Obama for president yesterday, Colin Powell said it better than anyone else.

The United States is a nation of diversity. To some extent, as Powell suggested, the Nov. 4 election is now a contest between forces that accept and cherish our diversity and those that resent and fear it. We have our bigots, yet fortunately the essence of America is a free, democratic land built with the blood, sweat and tears of millions who came to our shores from the four corners of the world. McCain and Palin have repeatedly tried to raise dark questions about Obama's background. They ask, "Who is Barack Obama?" The question they want many voters to hear is, "Aren't Obama's African and Muslim family roots scary?" Neither McCain nor Palin has done much to challenge their supporters at rallies who have shouted things against Obama like "traitor,""terrorist,""treason,""liar," and even "off with his head." This comes in the context of a vigorous McCain campaign effort to taint Obama as a terrorist because of an acquaintance with former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers. Last Thursday, Palin went further, dividing Americans and regions of America into those that are "pro-America" and those that are not: "We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, pro-America areas of this great nation."

At a Minnesota rally two weeks ago, McCain gave the microphone to a woman wearing a McCain-Palin t-shirt, who said, "I don't trust Obama. I have read about him. He's an Arab." The woman was mistaken because Obama is not Arab. It was clear that she tossed out the ethnic descriptor as an epithet. Her coded message was, Arabs and Muslims are trustworthy "others," and Obama is one of them. "No, ma'am," McCain said as he took the mike away from her. "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with (him) on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

Let's give McCain the benefit of the doubt and say he has nothing against Arabs and Muslims. At the same town-hall rally, he got himself jeered him when he told his supporters they did not need to be "scared" of Obama. Yet, McCain should have challenged the woman's use of the "Arab" label as an epithet. Something along the lines of, "No ma'am. I need to correct you. Obama is not an Arab. But if you were implying that because someone is an Arab they are untrustworthy, you are wrong. Arab-Americans are working alongside Americans of every other ethnic background to build our country. Some of them are serving their nation and their president in the armed forces, in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for Obama, of course he is a decent man, a family man, a patriotic citizen."

On Meet the Press yesterday, Powell revealed that its not just fringe folks in the McCain-Palin heartland who believe that Obama may be a Muslim who is connected with terrorists. Senior members of the Republican Party think that way, too, according to Powell. That's troubling enough for Powell that he's turning his back on a party whose presidents he has served with courage, honor and distinction and is embracing Obama to become America's next leader. The endorsement from the former soldier and head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is doubly devastating for McCain, given that McCain comes from a distinguished military family, was a POW in Vietnam and has held himself up as the only experienced and capable candidate to address America's national security challenges.

Here's Powell, on McCain, on Obama, on Muslims and on the real America:

The approach of the Republican Party and Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower. Mr. Obama, at the same time, has given us a more inclusive, broader reach into the needs and aspirations of our people. He's crossing lines--ethnic lines, racial lines, generational lines. He's thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values, not just small towns have values...

I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." 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? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, "He's a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists." This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery, and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards--Purple Heart, Bronze Star--showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death. He was 20 years old. And then, at the very top of the headstone, it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, and he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he can go serve his country, and he gave his life. Now we have got to stop polarizing ourself in this way.

--By Scott MacLeod/Cairo