October 17, 2012
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken the week ending Sunday, October 14.
That’s down a point from 38% the week before which marked the highest level of optimism since June 2009. The latest finding is up 13 points from 24% at the beginning of the year and up 21 points from 16% a year ago.
From July 25 through December 11 of last year, voter confidence in the nation's current course resembled levels measured in the final months of the George W. Bush administration, remaining in the narrow range of 14% to 19%. That finding began climbing in early January of this year to a high of 34% in the second week of February and then regularly tracked in the high 20s to low 30s until the week of September 3-9.
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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen October 8-14, 2012. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.