Dear Friend,

What an incredible response. We put out the call and thousands of you answered to tell us what you wanted to hear the candidates talk about at the NAACP Presidential Forum.

An overwhelming majority, 80% of you, want to hear about jobs and the economy, but there was a virtual tie between the war in Iraq and health care disparities (51.8% and 52.3%). You can view the full results of the poll here.

We were so inspired by the passionate response from all of you, and we want the candidates to hear that passion in your own words. So we're setting up an Ask the Candidates section on our website and our You Tube channel, where you can pose your own question to Senators Obama and McCain. Find out how to participate here.

Even though the candidates are not planning to have a question and answer session at the Presidential Forum, instead opting to address the Convention directly, we want to get your questions in front of them before they take the podium July 15^th and 16^th. The NAACP staff will select ten questions that will be made available at www.naacp.org, and will be sent directly to the campaign staff.

So many of you submitted fantastic comments to our poll, and I wanted to share a couple with you.

What I'd really like to hear the candidates address right now is "Will everyone's vote count in this Presidential Election?" -lucky1944

The military is the most accessible option for many of the young men and women in our community to get an affordable education and life experience. However, I do not want that experience cut short because of an unjust war. What are the Presidential candidates going to do to end the loss of American lives in the armed forces and military? -mrsjones

Let's keep this conversation going.

Sincerely,

Julian Bond