On the eve of President Obama‘s inauguration a year ago, nearly six in 10 Americans said his presidency would advance cross-racial ties. Now, about four in 10 say it has done so.

The falloff has been highest among African Americans. Last January, three-quarters of blacks said they expected Obama’s presidency to help. In the new poll, 51 percent of African Americans say he has helped, a wider gap between expectations and performance than among whites.

Although most of all those polled view Obama’s election as a mark of progress for all African Americans, three in 10 say it is not indicative of broader change. About two-thirds see Obama’s election as a sign of progress for all blacks in the United States, a figure unchanged from last year, but about half say his time in office has not made much difference in race relations. One in eight say it has hurt relations.http://acne.viviti.com/

The new poll showed little change in the views of African Americans’ current standing in society. About seven in 10 say blacks have already reached or will soon attain racial equality, about on par with the share saying so last January and during the 2008 presidential campaign. About two in 10 say equality will not happen in their lifetimes, and about one in 10 believe it will never happen.

African Americans’ views on achieving racial equality have become more pessimistic since the inauguration, returning to their preelection levels. The share saying blacks have reached racial equality dropped 9 percentage points, to 11 percent, and the percentage saying equality will not be achieved in their lifetimes climbed 9 points, to 32 percent. About one in five blacks say they will never achieve racial equality. Among whites, four in 10 say African Americans already have it and 31 percent say it will happen soon.

The political polarization that drives much opinion about Obama’s presidency carries over to perceptions of his impact on race relations as well. Among Democrats, about six in 10 say his presidency has helped race relations, compared with about four in 10 independents and just a quarter of Republicans. Expectations were high across party lines a year ago, with 75 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of independents and 43 percent of Republicans predicting that Obama’s would help relations. http://accutane.viviti.com/

There is less of  divide on whether Obama’s election itself was a sign of progress for all blacks: 72 percent of Democrats say so, as do majorities of Republicans (59 percent) and independents (63 percent).

The poll was conducted by telephone from Jan. 12 to 15 among a random sample of 1,083 adults. The full results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. For the 153 African Americans polled, the results have an 8 percentage point margin of error.

Late Tuesday, state police officers said that they thought they had the gunman, whom they identified as Christopher Speight, 39, surrounded in the woods and that he was still alive.

Seven bodies were found in one house, the authorities said, and the eighth victim was found by the side of the road and died on the way to the hospital.

All the victims were adults, the police said.

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A state police official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation, said two of the victims were thought to be the wife and the son of the gunman. He would not give other details.

his secretary of public safety, Marla Decker, to the scene to join the deputy secretary, John Buckovich, and Col. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the State Police.

“This is a horrific tragedy,” Mr. McDonnell’s office said in a statement. “The governor’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.”

Officers were called to the scene in Appomattox County at 12:02 p.m. after receiving a report that a man lying in the middle of the road needed urgent medical attention, Sgt. Thomas Molnar of the State Police said.

But when the police arrived, chaos ensued. Officers were fired on by a man hiding in the woods, the authorities said, and a helicopter hovering overhead was hit four times in and around its fuel tank, forcing it to make an emergency landing nearby. No officers were hurt, the authorities said.

Police dispatchers alerted a local school to go on lockdown, and businesses closed as more officers raced to the scene. Two homes were evacuated, and soon more than 100 officers formed a perimeter around the suspect, who they said they thought was hiding in a wooded area between Police Tower Road and Snapps Mill Road just outside the town of Appomattox.

Police officers were seen at 3030 Snapps Mill Road, which neighbors said is home to a family of four, according to local television reports.Bethel Hawkins, who lives about two miles from the shooting scene, said the police had warned families to lock their doors. “We’re just being cautious, keeping our doors locked, not going outside,” Mr. Hawkins said, adding: “We’re not going out in the dark not knowing what’s out there. But we trust in the Lord to take care of us.”

“The Senate bill is a nonstarter for most members,” he said.

Conservative Indiana Democrat Brad Ellsworth, like Weiner, predicted the Senate bill couldn’t pass. He told reporters he opposed it mainly because he objected to the inclusion of a special deal for Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson to cover all of that state’s costs for expanding Medicaid coverage.

Some Democrats suggested the prospect of no health care bill passing was more likely than rushing to pass the Senate’s bill.

“If it comes down to that Senate bill or nothing, I think we’re going to end up with nothing. I don’t hear a lot of support on our side for that bill,” Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch said.

Lynch shot down the notion that Democrats could first pass the Senate bill, then pass a second bill that would add some of the changes congressional leaders have negotiated with the White House.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen … we keep sending bills to the Senate, and they just never come back, so I guess I’ve lost my faith in anything happening quickly that requires Senate action,” he said.

But some House Democrats, notably Rep. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island, did leave the door open to considering the Senate passed bill.

“I think we could pass the Senate bill and come back later and fix the parts that are most egregious,” Kennedy said.

“Health care needs to go forward. If it’s a message on anything, it’s that we got the message messed up, not that we got the package messed up.”

Blue Dog Democrat Rep. Baron Hill of Indiana said the idea of passing the Senate bill is “the talk of the town.”

Hill said he still needs to look at details of Senate bill but is open to taking it up, saying “if that’s the only option in town then maybe that’s what we ought to do.”

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Washington (CNN) — Despite knowing Senate Democrats will lose their filibuster-proof majority after Tuesday night’s political upset in Massachusetts, House Democrats across the political spectrum largely rejected the idea of passing the Senate health care bill.

Liberal New York Democrat Anthony Weiner predicted the Senate bill wouldn’t have the votes to pass the House.

Weiner ridiculed House Democratic leaders for holding a meeting to brief House Democrats on negotiations with the White House on a health care bill, telling reporters, “They’re talking as if, ‘What our deal is, what our negotiators are at the White House’ — yeah, and then the last line is, ‘Pigs fly out of my ass’ … it’s just, we’ve got to recognize we are in an entirely different scenario.”

This scrambling has come about because Republican Scott Brown won a major upset victory in the special election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy.

With 89 percent of the results counted, Brown had 52 percent of the vote to 47 percent for Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate.

Several rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers on the right and the left suggested it may be best now to scrap their big overhaul bill and pass a smaller measure with provisions they can all agree on, such as barring rejection by insurers for those Americans who have pre-existing conditions and closing the doughnut hole to bring down prescription drug costs.

But it’s unclear if that option, like other contingency plans Democrats are considering, is doable now.

Weiner argued the Massachusetts results demonstrated Democrats have to change their strategy on health care.

“Large numbers of independent voters saying they’re upset about health care, that’s not just their fault, that’s our fault, too. And we have to think about what we’re doing wrong here and to have a conversation as if nothing happened, whether you’re in Massachusetts or not, is being tone deaf,” he said.

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