What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending August 5, 2011

Americans don’t like the debt ceiling deal he agreed to, and confidence in the economy and the future in general are low and getting lower. But most voters think President Obama has a good chance of being reelected next year anyway.  

Just 14% of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction. That’s down from 17% a week ago, 21% the week before, and 25% the week before that. It is the lowest measured since November 2, 2008, just before Obama was elected president.

Only 32% of voters think America’s best days are in the future while just over half (51%) say the nation’s best days are in the past.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell to a two-year low on Thursday and was just eight points above the all-time low of the post-9/11 era. The Rasmussen Investor Index, which measures daily confidence among that group, fell to a new two-year low on Saturday. And those findings were based upon interviews conducted before the U.S. credit rating was downgraded.

Just eight percent (8%) of American adults rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent, while 64% say it’s in poor shape. At the beginning of this calendar year, 11% said the economy was in good or excellent shape, while 50% said poor.