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As a negotiation coach it is natural for me to view election campaigns conducted between the two candidates for president and voters as a negotiation with multiple agendas, adversaries, and intense decision making.

That is why it strikes me as disturbing that both of the presidential candidates have similar positions on immigration that run contrary to the vast majority of voters in both parties. Other than the war in Iraq and concerns about the economy, the issue of immigration, both legal and illegal, and the need to bring immigration reform into our society is likely to emerge as a deciding factor.

Americans, caught up in the daily struggles of their own lives would be astonished to discover the degree and amount of news coverage America receives in the press of other nations and they would be even more astonished to see the depth of interest in us from ordinary individuals in other countries.

People all over the world pay close attention to America and what we will and won¹t do. Our policies, actions and non-actions are reported upon and broadcast via satellite, internet, and print every day by international news companies and agencies all over the world.

Generation Y, those born between the late 1970s and during the 1980s, is now entering the work force and, in the process they are transforming it, requiring Baby Boomers now facing retirement and Generation X’ers, born in the mid-1960s to late 70s, to face up to our short comings in our ability to negotiate.

Becoming better negotiators as a society will take us a long way down the road to protecting America’s future, both domestically and internationally. We must face it. Being able to negotiate with this cohort, estimated to number 70 million, is going to transform America’s workplace and is likely to impact the way we deal with the rest of the World in the future.