47% Say America’s Best Days Are in the Past
A plurality of voters nationwide believes America’s best days have come and gone, but that number has remained fairly consistent since the beginning of the year.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just over one-third (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe America’s best days are in the future. Forty-seven percent (47%) say the nation’s best days are in the past, while 16% are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The gap was closer a month ago, when 40% said the country’s best days lie ahead and 45% said they were in the past. Since January, the number of voters who say America’s best days are in the future has ranged from 36% to 47%. Meanwhile, 39% to 49% of voters have said the opposite over the same period.
Just before President Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, 48% said the country’s best days were still ahead, and 35% said they had come and gone.
Only 26% of voters now think the country is heading in the right direction.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on November 17-18, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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