We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and nonbelievers.

I believe that is the first respectful public reference to atheism by an American President. Reply if you know of another example.

Update:
Although the Obama team has completely upgraded Whitehouse.gov, Google still has the old version cached, which includes the only reference Google knows to this exchange with Bush 43 at an "Ask President Bush" event:

Q ... Mr. President, as a member of the local clergy of this city, I'm appalled at the different lengths of political correctness that has affected religious rights in Canada, Australia, France, and other European nations. Laws are being passed to limit offensive speech. If reelected, what will your administration do to the rights -- to help the rights of conservative Christians so that courts in America can't limit our free speech when it comes to offensive speech toward different groups?

THE PRESIDENT: Look, here's the thing. Freedom to speak is a valuable part of our country. And a President has got to protect that. People ought to be allowed to speak the way you want to speak. But there are limits. And it is very important for our society to work with those that push the limits without abridging anybody else's freedom to speak.

Let me talk about freedom of religion, as well, which is an incredibly important part of our society. My job as the President is to make sure -- this may get to your question, by the way, besides speech -- an incredibly important part about what you're asking is, can people worship freely, as well. Yes. That's the part of the job of the President, is to make sure that people can worship any way they want, any way they want. And they can choose any religion they want. Or they can choose no religion. You see, you're just as big a patriot -- as good a patriot as the next fellow if you choose not to worship. It's your choice to make. And the freedom of this country is that you can choose to do any way you want. And it's important that we keep that -- that freedom real and intact.

The move from atheism to patriotism seems to evoke this comment that Bush 41 made:

I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

There is some question as to whether or not Bush 41 actually said that, the Whitehouse never denied it, it has been widely quoted for years, and it certainly molded my impression of how the establishment in this country views atheism.

On Tuesday, President Obama delivered his highly anticipated inaugural address. Many observers noticed and commented on the respectful reference to nonbelievers. But just a few sentences beforehand, Obama referred to the Taliban and al Qaeda. These remarks have not drawn the same level of attention, although I'd argue they are more significant.

Let's take a look.

Obama said:

We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

He ends this paragraph with a forceful declaration about our collective will to defeat al Qaeda. This is status quo rhetoric.

Far more significant, however, is the carefully worded reference to "peace in Afghanistan" which opens the paragraph.

One hopes it is not, in fact, "too late" to achieve the Uncoupling.

In any case, time will tell.

From October 2008:

The solution for people who have spent a long time in Afghanistan was ... to work with the Taliban and somehow to uncouple the Afghan fighters from al-Qaeda. Seven years of killing later, it feels a bit too late to try that now. So, western policy seems glued to fighting a war that many people in the know are now saying the west is never going to win.

From October 2008:

"You Westerners have your watches," the leader observed. "But we Taliban have time."

From January 2009:

We will not be able to eliminate the Taliban from the rural areas of Afghanistan’s south, so we will have to work with Afghans to contain the insurgency instead. All this is unpleasant for Western politicians who dream of solving the fundamental problems and getting out. They will soon be tempted to give up.