LOS ANGELES — One early sign that a run of optimism may be on the way is the point at which the utility of continued pessimism is seen as utterly dysfunctional by all concerned.
It is as if things will be sucked into some enormous black hole unless there is a dramatic change in the nation's emotional direction. And so you get this burst of optimism.
This, in fact, is the point at which the American public is beginning to find itself. The growing sense is that the overall American position in the world, once a new president is sworn in early next year, is unlikely to get worse. Thus, even as virtually every opinion poll right now on the "national mood" is bleak, the baseline for pessimism has been set and things can only go up from here.