25% Say U.S. Heading In Right Direction, Lowest Since Obama Took Office

Rasmussen Reports
Mar. 03, 2010

Just 25% of U.S. voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, the lowest level of voter confidence since early January 2009.

Correspondingly, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 69% believe the nation is heading down the wrong track, the highest level measured in 14 months.

These findings mirror those in a separate survey this week that shows views of the country's short- and long-term economic future are gloomier than they have been at any time since President Obama took office in January of last year.

Leading up to his inauguration a year ago, the number of voters who felt the country was heading in the right direction remained below 20%. The week of his inauguration, voter confidence rose to 27% and then steadily increased, peaking at 40% in early May 2009. Confidence has declined since. As is often the case, there was a brief burst of enthusiasm at the beginning of the year when 32% said the country was heading in the right direction, but that quickly faded.

African-American voters (42%) continue to be more optimistic about the nation's current course than whites (22%) and voters of other races (31%). The number of Black voters who feel this way, however, is down 18 points from last week's finding of 60%.

The vast majority (92%) of Republicans and 74% of voters not affiliated with either major party believe the nation is heading down the wrong track. Only seven percent (7%) of Republicans are confident in the nation's current course. The latest findings echo the pessimism Republican and unaffiliateds felt for most of 2009, but Republican angst spiked six points from last week's finding.

Democrats are much more closely divided on the question: 46% say right direction, while 44% say wrong track. In May of last year, 68% of Democrats said right direction, and just 26% said wrong track.

In February, the number of voters not affiliated with either major party increased by half a percentage point as both Republicans and Democrats lost further ground.

A majority of voters now think politics in the nation's capital will become more partisan over the next year. That's a 13-point jump from the 52% who felt that way just after Obama's State of the Union speech in late January in which he talked about trying to work with Republicans.

Most Americans (58%) say the current state of the U.S. economy has caused more stress in their family.

As the country wrestles with a future of historic-level deficits, 67% of voters say that illegal immigrants are a significant strain on the U.S. budget.

Homeowners continue to express little confidence in the short-term prospects for the U.S. housing market, but most still have more hope for five years down the road.

Americans are looking a little more favorably on further government regulation of the U.S. financial system, but a plurality (47%) are still opposed.

Obama's health care summit last week seems to have nudged up support, but 52% of U.S. voters continue to oppose the health care plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats.

Forty percent (40%) of voters nationwide give Obama good or excellent marks for leadership, but 41% rate the president's leadership as poor.