From www.cbsnews.com
CBS Poll: Americans Optimistic About Obama
Seventy-Nine Percent Say They Are Optimistic About The Next Four Years
(CBS) A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that President-elect Barack Obama is the recipient of the highest levels of optimism and expectations of any modern president.
Seventy-nine percent of Americans say they are optimistic about the next four years, according to the poll. Only 16 percent say they are pessimistic.
What part of this doesn't the Republicans get? An Idaho congressman complained on the floor of the house yesterday that he felt like he had woken up in "Bizarro world" where a "trillion dollar" spending spree was about to be signed into law by President Obama. Well, he was right about one thing. He is living in Bizarro world along with every other House Republican and all but three Republican senators. As the old joke goes denial is not a river in Egypt. They seem totally incapable of accepting the fact that they have lost all power within the Federal government. Nor do they seem able to comprehend the level of anger that a majority of Americans feel towards their stewardship of the nation during the disastrous eight years of the failed Bush administration.
They are collectively experiencing what the late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross called the seven stages of grief in her landmark work On Death and Dying. They are:
Shock stage: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news.
Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable.
Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion.
Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out.
Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable.
Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions.
Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward.
The shock and denial is self-evident in the way they continue to believe that they have no reason whatsoever to change the way they have been doing business in Washington for the last thirty years. They are terrifying delusional in their belief that they can still wins the hearts and minds of the majority of Americans by trotting out the same tired old right wing rhetoric about tax-cuts, Democrats as pro big government and big spending while they are the essence of conservative fiscal restraint. The fact that any one with an Internet connection and a Google search can establish the truth that it was the Republicans and their blind obedience to the wishes of the morally and criminally corrupt Bush administration which has gotten us into this borderline economic depression.
And the level of their anger has been on display since Day One of the Obama administration. It sprays across our TV screens and the blogs like the venom of a spitting cobra...toxic and deadly. And they're not faking it wither. Just look at the anger in their faces as they almost are about to have a stroke or coronary right there on the floor of the House or Senate.
Whether or not they will ever get past the first two stages is an open question. Given their almost pathological belief in the their righteousness of their cause which has been ordained by God, I find it difficult to believe that they are capable of bargaining or acceptance. I do feel however that depression is a definite possibility. If President Obama continues to maintain the same high levels of support from the American people, I can't imagine how they can avoid it. And just to add insult to injury, let me include this other item from the same CBS News poll:
Bush's Final Approval Rating: 22 %
CBS News/N.Y. Times Poll Finds President Will Leave Office With
Lowest Final Approval Rating Ever