The excitement of any "deal" should never overcome attention to details. In our case it was assuming the particulars of close to a $100k credit card transaction were quite clear, and the word of my salesperson good.  It was the failure to have the absolute knowledge that all interested parties were on board before sending high 10s of thousands of dollars to a manufacturer who had already started building my product.  If not for the honorable actions of that manufacturer when the sale went south, perhaps this column would be written from an old garage sale Atari, if not at all.

Still, monster transaction are sometimes worth celebrating even with the associated unknowns.  And big events that bring wholesale promise can do so as well.

This morning brings great news in at least two high profile elections.  "Great" may well be a subjective descriptor, but for those of us who prefer freedom, it is more than a pleasant sign that we could return to a state of sanity in this country.  A restored state of conservatism that believes in liberty, and the God given ability of each man and woman to bring themselves up to their full potential.

With a little pre-writing, I was prepared to say that "Hoffman won!!", yet in a surprise to all watchers, he failed to do so by a small percentage.  In fact there was surprise in three of the high profile races.  Hoffman's race quite obviously one, but the win by Christie in NJ with a margin not too small, and the VA governors race with nearly 20 percentage points.

Unfortunately my personal predictions could not have been further off, and while it seems my "IDEAL WIN" in this cycle didn't happen, I can see at the same time there is still a silver lining.

I was glad to see the two governorships move into the red demonstrating the resilience of the American Spirit, and the will to pursue a more classical approach to governance.  In the face of the idea that government, and only government can be there as a safety net.  By 80 and 85% margins, voters were heavily concerned with the economy, which is usually better addressed with conservative practicality.

As in business however, this "big win" carries no guarantees of a national change... yet.  And though it is a solid repudiation of what has become a national takeover of our lives, it is done in the face of a media, and money machine that seeks to empower itself at the expense of our liberty.

If we thought the deal was done with Hoffman, we were mistaken.  I know I was.  Prior to the results, I had marked it up as a big sale, a win, I banked it...  I was prepared to build on it "exponentially" with grand messages of "conservatives are RIGHT!"  OR "THATS how you do it!"  However the deal fell apart, and now we go from a total "score" to a more tempered one.  Our candidate was brought back to the customer service counter.  

Except... There is still hope.. he is still new in the box.

In our business we run into a return or two, and apart from the big deals referenced earlier, we treat each one as a learning experience.  Over time, it has become standard to suggest to the customer we identify as "high risk" that perhaps they shouldn't buy what we are selling.  More than a modest number of times would you hear me say "Actually, if there is any possibility you will return this, I would rather not sell it to you.."  I don't like to have "seconds," or "B-Stock" on the shelf, and would rather not perform the wheel spin of a sale and return cycle.

Hoffman in NY23 will be back.  He is still fresh, and in 2010 the seat is open again.  The mistake by The NY Republican elites to choose a leftist (Democrat as it turns out) hack mucked up the works a little, and a 30 day challenge from a completely unknown conservative just wasn't enough to fix it in time.  The lost sale not gone forever.. maybe just delayed a bit.  Next year may well find dozens of Hoffmans available as viable conservative alternatives to run as Republican flag bearers.

This is the year the country starts developing smarter shopping habits perhaps.  In 2010 we will continue to sell OUR product of consistent conservative management ideals to those unhappy with the hard core leftist drivel they had bought in 2008. For that matter, we may well have a banner sales year in Michigan where a substandard executive product has been patched together for so long, that immediate replacement is required.  Hopefully in the process we break the business that keeps "hard selling" the defective "European liberal" ideas on us.