A new Bloomberg poll finds that Americans are increasingly gloomy and a growing number of Americans are losing the brief boost of optimism many had after the election of President Barack Obama: the “wrong track” number is growing.
Americans have grown gloomier about both the economy and the nation’s direction over the past three months even as the U.S. shows signs of moving from recession to recovery.
Almost half the people now feel less financially secure than when President Barack Obama took office in January, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.….. The economy is the country’s top concern, with persistently high unemployment the greatest threat the public sees. Eight of 10 Americans rate joblessness a high risk to the economy in the next two years, outranking the federal budget deficit, which is cited by 7 of 10. An increase in taxes is named as a high risk by almost 6 of 10.
Fewer than 1 in 3 Americans think the economy will improve in the next six months. They are pessimistic that the government will succeed in reducing unemployment or lowering the budget deficit.
A year into Obama’s presidency, only 32 percent of poll respondents believe the country is headed in the right direction, down from 40 percent who said so in September.
That’s a danger sign for the Obama and the Demmies….as is this:
The mood among members of Obama’s own Democratic Party has shifted most dramatically: While Democrats remain the most positive, the proportion saying the country is on the right track dropped to 58 percent from 71 percent in September. Among independents, 26 percent say the country is on the right track, down from 29 percent in September.
This could be at least part of the reason why there is a big spurt of energy in the Senate to find some kind of compromise on health care reform. Apart from the very real, substantive and compelling health care reform issue, the Democrats know that they have to deliver — and deliver soon — on something given the fact that although the battered economy seems to be slowly healing, it’s healing very slowly and the job scene remains bleak.
My DD’s Jonathan Singer points to two polls and notes that part of Obama’s poll erosion is due to losing the support of some disappointed Democratic voters.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.