ABC TV'S 2007 POLL

Leading the Gaian Revolution: Commonsense for Desperate Times

INTRODUCTION

Gaian Democracies: Redefining Globalisation & People-Power by Roy Madron & John Jopling
Summary

Roy Madron: Biography

Radio Interview with Jane Taylor, from Resonance FM

Email address: rm(at)gaiandemocracy.net

ABC News POLL:November. 4, 2007

A Year Before '08 Election, Public's Theme Is Discontent: Nearly Three-Quarters Say the Country Is on the Wrong Track,Highest in a Decade

ANALYSIS by GARY LANGER

Decade-high discontent marks the political landscape a year before the 2008 election, with economic worries compounding the public's war weariness, deep dissatisfaction with the sitting president -- and growing disapproval of the Democratic-led Congress.

Seventy-four percent of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the country is headed in the wrong direction, the most sincethe government shut down in a contentious budget battle in early 1996. And while George W. Bush remains at his career low in job approval, henow has company: A year after they won control of the House and Senate, approval of the Democrats in Congress has fallen to its lowest since 1995.

At play are two of the most powerful forces in politics: an unpopular war and economic anxiety. On Iraq, 63 percent of Americans continue to say the war was not worth fighting. And at home, nearly two-thirds rate the economy negatively, with nearly seven in 10 seeing some likelihood of a recession in the year ahead.

Change

A clear demand is for change; 75 percent want to see the next president lead the nation in a direction different from Bush's. That compares to just 47 percent who held that view at this point in Bill Clinton's presidency, 55 percent in Ronald Reagan's. Even among Republicans, a bare majority wants a change in direction from Bush's. Indeed, while 67 percent of Republicans still approve of Bush's job erformance, that's a career low within his own party. (Among all Americans, just 33 percent approve.) And a majority of Republicans, 53 percent, say the country's off on the wrong track; that soars to 74 percent of independents and a nearly unanimous 91 percent of Democrats.

For PDF with charts and data table. go to </images/PollingUnit/1050a1ElectionYear-Out.pdf>

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