Question
That's probably because, judging from context, the actual question seems to have been "Are Democratic and liberal political types any happier now than they were 8 years ago?"
Aside from getting bombarded by media crepe hanging, the majority of the American people, judging from actual statistics, are doing pretty well.
Even the mortgage crisis is affecting only a tiny number of people. The "record foreclosure rate" is still less than one percent.
The standard poll results seem to run along the lines of "I'm doing pretty well, but from what I see on TV, the country's going to hell."