Back in May, actor-economist-writer-game show host Ben Stein wrote about his travels throughout the country and what he found to be, generally, the American attitude:

Despite the setbacks in Iraq, despite the long slow pullout from the recession that began in 2000, there is a happy mood in the country -- we'll get through whatever the problems are now, things will be better tomorrow, and for right now, we'll all laugh about it together or maybe cry about it, but together, and the fact that we're together will make it better.

I don't want to paint with too broad a brush. There are pockets of constant complaining. The big cities of the east and west coasts, especially among people who make their living by complaining, are not so happy as North Idaho. Whole large swaths of the population who rationalize their own failings by thinking of themselves as victims, especially in big cities and heavy coffee drinking centers, have their own clubs. Those brotherhoods specialize in pessimism and anger as they spend the money they have inherited or receive as allowances from family, state, or university. The malcontents live on their frustration and envy of the people who are actually out there accomplishing things. That envy rises like the steam from the coffee and lattes they are endlessly drinking.

"...we'll get through whatever the problems are now, things will be better tomorrow..." That, more than the constant complaining from "some pockets," seems to be the dominant mood now even more than in May.

The pockets of complaining do seem loud at times. But the reservoirs of hope now appear much more vast.