Just 17% of voters believe the United States is moving in the right direction, while 77% say it is heading down the wrong track, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Opinions among voters have stabilized somewhat on the question since Election Day.

After reaching record highs in November, the percentages of Democratic and African-American voters who say the country is moving in the right direction began to slip last week.

The latest survey found that 26% of black voters now say the nation is heading in the right direction, compared to 24% last week. Sixty-two percent (62%) of blacks say the country is moving down the wrong track.

Opinions among Democrats haven’t changed since last week, with 20% saying the nation is moving in the right direction and 73% that it is heading down the wrong track.

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The views of white and Republican voters have remained fairly consistent since the election. Just 14% of whites and 14% of Republicans believe the nation is moving in the right direction. Eighty percent (80%) of white voters and 81% of Republican voters believe America is heading down the wrong track.

Religious voters are slightly more confident in the future but are still overwhelmingly negative about the country's present course. Just 16% of voters who attend religious services every week and 11% of those who attend more than once a week say the United States is heading in the right direction. However, that view is shared by 27% of those who only attend church once a month and 18% of those who rarely or never attend religious services.

A separate Rasmussen survey released this week found that 40% of voters now say America’s best days are in the future, marking the lowest level of optimism since early July.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure confidence among both these groups on a daily basis, inched up slightly on Tuesday, but both have been in record low territory the past two weeks.

About the only overall bright spot in public opinion at year's end is President-elect Barack Obama's continued high ratings in the daily Presidential Approval Index.

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