Feeling Blue ?

Divided by the war and anxious about the future, Americans want some fixes
By Susan PageUSA TODAY
Call us the Unhappy States of America.
One year before Election Day 2008, most Americans are dismayed by the country's direction, pessimistic about the Iraq war and anxious about the economy. Two of three disapprove of the job President Bush is doing. Nearly a year after Democrats took control of Congress, three of four Americans say it isn't achieving much, either.
In all, 72% of those surveyed in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Oct. 12-14 say they are dissatisfied with how things are going in the USA while just 26% are satisfied. Not since April have even one-third of Americans been happy with the country's course, the longest national funk in 15 years.
"Don't get me wrong, America's a great country," says Lori Jones, 46, a medical assistant in Phoenix. But she worries about her family's finances and prospects for the next generation. "I think we've somehow lost our way."
The last time the national mood was so gloomy was in 1992, when the first President Bush was ousted from the White House and H. Ross Perot received the highest percentage of the vote of any third-party candidate in 80 years. Bill Clinton was elected amid economic angst.
And the likely impact of the downbeat mood on next year's election?
"I'd rather be the Democratic candidate," says Joel Aberbach, director of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA. Democratic presidential contenders are tapping desire for change. Now 53% of Americans surveyed have a favorable view of the Democratic Party; just 38% have a favorable view of the GOP.
Iraq dominates the political agenda. In the poll, four in 10 Americans volunteer that the Iraq war will be one of the most important issues determining their vote in 2008. That's more than twice as many who cite the second-ranking issue: health care.
Six in 10 call the invasion of Iraq a mistake, equal to the highest levels of anti-war feeling during the Vietnam conflict. Despite reports of progress after this year's rise in U.S. force levels, a majority say the situation in Iraq is getting worse for the United States. Only 16% say it's getting better.
"The next person coming in, it's going to take him at least eight years to clean up," predicts Geraldine Buie, 49, a food-service worker in Milwaukee who wants U.S. troops withdrawn now.
Not everyone has a dismal view of the future, of course.
"I think things are going along fine," said Tanya Rider, 32, a medic from Salem, though she worries about her brother and best friend, both deployed to Iraq. "The job market is going up. There's less homeless people." (The National Alliance to End Homelessness says the difficulty of counting homeless people makes it hard to assess whether their numbers are falling.)
Predictably, those who rate the economy as good are much happier with the country's direction than those who rate it as poor. Affluent Americans are more satisfied than those with lower incomes. Conservatives are more satisfied than liberals, and men more than women.
Even in the most optimistic demographic category, however, a majority is dissatisfied with the country's direction — including, for instance, 55% of Republicans. Among Democrats, the conclusion is almost universal: 84% say things are on the wrong track.
There's a kind of longer-term impact of the economy. Overall the economy is doing quite well but the sense of insecurity, the sense of anxiety of what the future might hold — that's having a downward effect."
Assessments of the current economy, while downbeat, are no worse than they were one year before the presidential elections in 1992, 1996 and 2004.
What's driving today's negative mood is pessimism about the future: Two-thirds predict economic conditions are getting worse, by far the highest number since 1992.
At a roundtable discussion in Neptune, N.J., only one of the 11 participants was looking for a job; the rest were retired or employed, most in jobs they like.
Tish Ferguson, 48, a global recruiting manager, says she "works in a market where we're worried about a recession."
Eugene Kelsey, 82, expressed alarm about the impact of illegal immigration on American culture.
Four in 10 say a recession is likely during the next year.
For many Americans, good economic news about steady growth and low unemployment and inflation has been overshadowed by the rising cost of gasoline, turmoil in the housing market and uncertainties about health care coverage.
"I keep hearing there are positive indicators in the economy," says Dave Hendrick, 30, an Americorps volunteer in Milwaukee. "I have a hard time understanding that when I see skyrocketing foreclosure rates."
There are significant differences in views of the economy by region. The mood is brightest in the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain states, where 46% rated the economy as good in an aggregation of seven Gallup Polls taken since May.
The mood is darkest in the Great Lakes, where just 31% called the economy good. Jobs are a big reason as the region tries to recover from the loss of manufacturing plants. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation; Ohio the fifth highest.
Since World War II, no party has managed to hold the White House when the incumbent president had a job-approval rating below 45% one year before the election. Bush's approval rating now: 32%.
Congress fares even worse. Its approval rating in August dipped to 18%, equaling the low point in the history of Gallup. It's now bumped up to a still-dismal 29%.
Ethics scandals and opposition to the Iraq war contributed to a Democratic takeover of the House and Senate in last November's elections, but Congress' ratings haven't significantly improved since then. Dissatisfaction is widespread and bipartisan: 76% of those surveyed say Congress has accomplished "not too much" or "nothing at all" this year. Among those, 73% blame both parties equally.
When it comes to the presidential race, the nation's gloomy mood is boosting the Democrats.
Americans who are dissatisfied with the country's direction — nearly three-fourths of the population — are twice as likely to support a Democratic candidate. Those who are satisfied are twice as likely to support a Republican one.
Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton is backed by one-third of those dissatisfied with the country's direction. By a lopsided 5 to 1 ratio, her supporters are unhappy with how things are going.
Similarly, satisfaction dropped to historic lows in 1992, contributing to the elder Bush's ouster and Bill Clinton's election. Not until January 1998 did the percentage of those satisfied top 50% again.
Ask what's going wrong, however, and everyone seems ready to speak at once.
The war. The gap between rich and poor. Political corruption. Only one person at the table raises a hand when the question is whether the next generation will have better lives than the current one — the classic promise of America.
"We have people doing very, very well and people doing very, very poorly," says Tom Loughran, 66, a data processor from Brick, N.J. "I would rather see the vast majority of the people … at least able to have a reasonable standard of living in the middle."
The others express little optimism that a new president can turn around the problems they see. Paula Cohen, 61, a human resources director for a nutrition company, says she is approaching the election with "trepidation."
"The divisiveness and the pettiness and the vitriol in our political culture" seems sure to continue after the election is over, says her husband, Bob Cohen.
"The next day," he predicts to general agreement, "the opposing party will start a campaign for the next presidential election."

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Pelosi Too?
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Add House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the list of Americans who think Congress is doing a lousy job.
Hours after touting the Democratic-controlled Congress' achievements at a ceremony on the Capitol steps Thursday, Pelosi confessed that she would give the legislative body low marks if a pollster asked her.
"I know that Congress has low approval ratings," Pelosi, D-Calif., said at her weekly news conference. "I don't approve of Congress, because we haven't done anything that — we haven't been effective in ending the war in Iraq. And if you asked me in a phone call, as ardent a Democrat as I am, I would disapprove of Congress as well."
Not surprisingly, Pelosi said President Bush and his Republican allies are mostly to blame. She noted that Bush has vetoed Democratic-led efforts to wind down the war, expand a children's health program and broaden stem cell research.
In the October AP-Ipsos poll, Americans gave Congress a 22 percent approval rating, the lowest score since the poll began in late 2003.
Pelosi, who became speaker in January, found some rays of sunlight among the clouds. She cited a new Pew Research Center survey in which 44 percent of those polled said the Democratic Party can better manage the federal government, while 32 percent chose the Republican Party.
"I'm very proud of what we have done," Pelosi said. The key to boosting her party's image, she said, is "to get through the fog of war, because there is no question that the war in Iraq has eclipsed much of what we have done."