I just don't see why people think that 2006 was such a bad year. The left has everybody brainwashed into thinking that things are really bad in America right now, but I bet if you looked at the lives of most Americans, they are doing pretty well. Overall, the economy is great. We have plenty of food and clothing. More people own homes than ever before. We have access to more electronic gadgets than we could really want and way more than we need. From the world's point of view, life is pretty darn good in America. Sure we are at war but it really doesn't have a very big impact on the lives of most Americans. I bet most people don't really think about it except when the main-stream media throws out another biased report about how bad things are in Iraq. Compare this to other wars that America has faced in the past and you'd hardly know we were at war. Instead of 8000 dead per month, as in WWII, this war averages ~50 deaths per month. I am sorry to see any brave young men give up their lives, and I honor those who put themselves in harms way to keep the war off of our shores. But even with the war, which started long before 2006, life is good in America. I wish that people would stop buying into the left's American sob story and recognize how good we have it.
Update (01/01/07): I just came across a couple of articles (1 and 2)related to this subject. A good line from the first one:
Democrats were more likely than Republicans to have a negative view of the past year, and were less likely to feel optimistic looking forward.