Voters in a dark mood as Election 2008 approaches

The Associated Press

If the voters ain't happy, nobody's happy.

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Voters in a dark mood as Election 2008 approaches

The economy is in the dumps. The country is at war with no end in sight. And the electorate is polarized. But there is broad agreement about one thing: Voters are cranky.

Can America's self-confidence be restored? Can its standing in the world? And will voters be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel?

Ben likes: The moral economy

Victor Davis Hanson/National Review Online

We need to ignore the alarmist hysteria, calm down and appreciate that life is better than at any time in the last 5,000 years of civilization. People are living longer; we're healthier; and millions of Americans have the opportunities to travel, communicate and avoid physical drudgery that were once reserved only for a tiny aristocracy. There is plenty of excess in modern American life that can be shed without real hardship.

Finally, we must view our present economic challenges in a larger philosophical and ethical framework and redefine success as being able to pay off what we owe, and spend only what we earn.

Joel likes: Leadership vacuum leaves the electorate pissy

E.J. Dionne/Washington Post

The skepticism about government is currently directed against Bush, against conservatives and against Republicans. But this should give Democrats little comfort. As Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg argues in the The American Prospect, “there is a perverse consequence brought about by the scale of conservatives’ failure.”

The problem, Greenberg says, “is that conservatives have failed in ways that have undermined Americans’ sense of collective capacity. Their failure has communicated not just their own incompetence, but also the message that government in general is incompetent.

“By failing so dramatically,” Greenberg continues, “conservatives have created a significant roadblock for Democrats: They have undermined people’s faith in the very instrument that we as progressives want to use to solve problems.”