How do you measure glumness in Washington?

Glumness of Washingtonians has plunged to a new low below zero, says pollster Stu Elway, lower than it was during the Great Recessions of 2008 and 2009. How do you measure glumness, which is pessimism as opposed to optimism?

By asking questions like do you expect things to get better during the next year, i.e., nationally, in the state, and where you live? A couple of years ago, the answer was yes, today the answer is no.

What sets my glumness meter off, however, is not so much the economy but what’s happening in the general population. Take a gander at what I’ve clipped out of the newspapers...