We received this VERY interesting email today and thought we’d share it with you as food for thought regarding the presidential candidates and the role race has played in Americans’ perceptions of their qualifications to hold the most powerful political position in our country.  We don’t know who the author of this email is, but if you happen to, please let us know because we’re in awe of the author’s candid and frank ideas! 

Read the email:

Issues to make you think before you act. Decisions are the food that life is made of. They take us in the direction of right or wrong; agreeable or disagreeable; life or death. Intelligence is half the battle!

What if things were switched around? Think about it. Would the country’s collective point of view be different? Could racism be the culprit????  [this most certainly must be a rhetorical question!]

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, following the debate,
including a three month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?
(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan – 20crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display  a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as  they are?  This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference.

And, think of this – the candidates’ educational backgrounds:

Barack Obama:
ColumbiaUniversity- B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.   Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.  Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
John McCain:
United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study
University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester
Univ ersity of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism

Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.

You make the call.

FWO-ForWomenOnline.com!