The 5 stages of losing

The 5 stages are:
· Denial
· Anger
· Bargaining
· Depression (despair)
· Acceptance

Keith Olbermann (AKA Bloggerman) is stuck in stage one - you can peek at that for yourself if you need to.

And Liberal political analyst Ruy Teixeira co-wrote a book 2 years ago predicting an emerging Democratic dominance of national politics. That certainly has not happened yet -- but neither has the opposite, he believes. The electorate this year "tilted, but it didn't tilt very much," Teixeira said. "If the war on terror is such a realigning issue, how come Bush only got 51 percent of the vote?" he asked.

Listen, fine - thirteen of the winners of the previous 21 elections won a larger share of the vote. Lyndon B. Johnson won the highest percentage, when he swamped Barry Goldwater in 1964 with 61.1 percent. But Bill Clinton won with the lowest, when he took 43 percent in 1992. Bush, however, is the first to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988.

Most everyone else, however, has moved past stage one, onto stage two. Stage 2 is so fun, even the Canadians are getting in on it.

Stage 3 is mostly being ignored so far, but there is plenty of time left. I like to think that Michael Moore is stuck in this stage sometimes, "bargaining" with all the "slackers" (real or imagined) of this country. "If you will JUST COME OUT AND VOTE, THE PAIN WILL GO AWAY!" He actually toured the US, being paid by funds reserved for 'non-partisan' events, to try to get people to vote for Kerry.

Stage 4, now this is the most interesting. Not only so we have people seeking counseling because of the Kerry defeat, we have a few looneys who actually have offed themselves. One less vote for the Dems in 2008, I say.

Stage 5 - well, I don't think that will happen. It can take years to crawl your way through stages 1 through 4, and I think that the evidence shows most looneys started this process in 2000. If they aren't there by now, they never will be.