According to Pollster.com, since February 1st, the percentage of Americans indicating they are "dissatisfied" with the country has dropped from about 79% to 66%. Further, most "right direction / wrong direction" polls show, since February 1st, a substantial uptick in the number of Americans who have a positive direction of the country. From Polling Report:
AP-GfK: +8% "right direction" since February 17th
Daily Kos: +10% "right direction" since February 5th
Ipsos / McClatchy: +3% "right direction" since February 9th
CBS News: +16% "right direction" since February 4th
ABC / WaPo: +11% "right direction" since February 22nd
Diageo / Hotline: +7% "right direction" since March 2nd
Unsurprisingly, this increased sense that the country is already improving comes entirely from Democrats and Independents. According to the crosstabs of the three most recent Daily Kos "state of the nation" polls (including the one released today), 50.3% of Democrats, 46.3% of Independents, and 29.3% of Republicans believe the country is moving in the right direction. By contrast, for the first three polls conducted entirely after President Obama's January 20th inauguration (starting on January 26th and ending on February 12th), the partisan "right direction" crosstabs were 33.7% of Democrats, 34.7% of Republicans, and 34.0% of Independents. Here is the rate of change over that period of time:
Change in % indicating country is moving in the "right direction," 1/26-2/12 and 4/5-4/23
Democrats: +16.67%
Independents: +10.33%
Republicans: -4.67%
So, belief in whether the country is moving in the "right direction" is highly contingent on partisan affiliation. Democrats and Independents increasingly see the country as moving in the "right direction," while Republicans increasingly view the country as headed in the "wrong direction."
This shows, first, that opinion on the direction of the country is mainly an ideological belief based on perceived effectiveness of policies that have yet to have a substantial impact. Second, it also shows that the country probably is moving in the right direction. The last eight years have consistently shown us that whenever rank and file Democrats and rank and file Republicans have opposing views on the direction of the country, it is highly likely that Democrats are the ones on the right track. Right up until the end of his presidency, even after the economic collapse, a majority of Republicans still approved of President Bush's job performance. If these same Republicans are now turning against President Obama, then it is a pretty good bet our current President (and Congress, given their rising approval ratings) is doing something right.
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