Powell said exactly what needed to be said:
It troubled me. You know, we have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. And so those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who is a Muslim and who’s not a Muslim. Those kinds of images going out on al Jazeera are killing us around the world. And we have got to say to the world it doesn’t make any difference who you are or what you are. If you’re an American you’re an American.
A great round up. And he asked the question that I thought no one would ever ask: … what about if he was a Muslim?
http://civilexpression.blogspot.com/2008/10/colin-powell-what-if-he-is-muslim.html