In diners across America, people are talking.
Over the past few months, an enormous amount of money has been spent on campaigning, including negative campaign ads.
On more than one occasion, after being bombarded with campaign ads, it had become almost unbearable to want to hear or see anymore.
Knowing, precisely, what any candidates true agenda was has been, at best, difficult.
Companies are, often, advised by business planning and strategic experts that a clear and concise mission statement is mandatory to set a direction for a company.
Unfortunately, more times than not, companies have no mission, resorting to selling products/services based on price and price alone.
When companies compete just on price, without expanding product lines, profits become eroded and business fails.
In the final month before an election, I have to wonder how many candidates lose track of their mission of promising to run a fair and honest campaign, and in a desperate effort to get the vote, resort to negative campaign ads as a means of confusing the voter.
I would guess that the ratio of campaign managers doing this is high.
However, even more interesting is the fact that after an election, no one wants to discuss these negative campaign strategies, how the vote might have been affected by them or what this might mean for the future.
As an educated, and thoughtful, American who knew many of the issues and candidates, I had trouble remembering precise agendas at the polls.
I can only wonder about other Americans who went to the polls, not clear of the issues, or of the candidates positions, yet voted.
On November 2nd, The Republican party took sweeping control of The House of Representatives, while The Democratic party barely held onto The Senate.
Has America sent a message to Washington that they are endorsing The Republican party? The Republicans might be jumping to conclusions to think so.
Although some people are knowledgeable and informed citizens, not everyone seems to be as informed and, still, there are others that believe some of the negative campaign ads as fact.
Remaining is a lot of confusion about who stands for what and whether the elected candidates can get anything done in two years.
It might be better to conclude that America has voted for "a change" and not a party.
With good reason, America is concerned about the economy and the simple fact that job creation has not come faster.
As a small business executive it has been said to me that America is relying on businesses like ours to create new jobs, particularly, as we are an environmentally conscious company that supports green initiatives by marketing remanufactured, and compatible, office supplies, as well as specialty direct mail and carton marking inks.
Many of our efforts are spent trying to educate the consumer that purchasing these products will save their budget, without sacrifice to quality and that all remanufactured products are not created equal.
Although we realize that tax cuts, alone, will not spur the economy, tax hikes and the issue of what becomes of healthcare are a big issue facing small business before growth can be considered.
Is compromise possible in Washington or will the government go into a gridlock mode based on conflicting priorities? The public has sent a message to Washington that they want change.
If no positive change is seen by 2012, it is anyone's guess what the next election might be like.