about the upcoming election and the issues they believe are critical in 2012. in the months ahead, we ll send questions to this panel and ask them to give us a reality check on what they think is important. we ll also post these questions on our facebook page and our twitter feed to see what you think. so please be sure to chime in. in this first installment of small biz sounds off we have three entrepreneurs with us to talk politics. gene marks is the president of the marks group and a small business columnist for the new york times who s based in philadelphia. he voted for president obama in the last election. paul saginaw is the co-found irof the zingerman s community of businesses which is based in an arbor, michigan. he also cost his voteor schmidt the enchanted springs ranch in tex. he supported john mccain is the last election. thank you all for coming and joining in in the first of this series which i m so excited about. i want to start with you, gene, because i do think