Americans More Downbeat than at Any Time Since Carter, Poll Says
By: Fox News
Updated: January 23, 2013
WASHINGTON - As President Obama begins his second term, he is facing an increasingly pessimistic public who believes that America's best days are behind them.
According to a recently released Gallup poll, 39 percent of Americans rated the current climate of the country as positive. That's about the same as it was in 2010 -- and has been the lowest recorded by Gallup since President Jimmy Carter's term in 1979.
Gallup asked Americans to rate their feelings about the country today, five years from now and five years ago. Based on a scale of 0 to 10, the 39 percent of Americans gave a 6-to-10 rating when asked to evaluate the nation's current climate.
Taken together with the 2010 reading, that's just above where the country was at the end of the Carter term -- when inflation was high and the economy was reeling. At that time, just 34 percent had a positive outlook.
Optimism steadily rose after 1979, peaking in about 2001 at 73 percent -- since the 9/11 terror attacks, national optimism has steadily declined.
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