American Optimism at New Low, Poll Finds

Only 25 percent of those surveyed say things in the U.S. are going in the right direction
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - It is gloomy out there. Men and women, whites and minorities - all are feeling a war-weary pessimism about the United States seldom shared by so many people.

Only 25 percent of those surveyed say things in the U.S. are going in the right direction, according to an AP-Ipsos poll this month. That is about the lowest level of satisfaction detected since the survey started in December 2003.

Rarely have longer-running polls found such a rate since the even gloomier days of 1992, ahead of the first President Bush 's re-election loss to Democrat Bill Clinton.

The current glumness is widely blamed on public discontent with the war in Iraq and with President George W. Bush.

Women and minorities are less content than men and whites, which has been true for years. But all four groups are at or near record lows for the AP-Ipsos poll, and at unusually low levels for older surveys as well. See: Americans' Optimism Drops to a New Low