Only 9 percent of the country think we're going in the right direction, and yet

[nichomachus]

the polls would have us believe that nearly 50 percent want four more years of the same. How odd!

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110983/Americans-Satisfaction-AllTime-Low.aspx

PRINCETON, NJ -- Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are set to meet for the second presidential debate in Nashville Tuesday night at a time when only 9% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States -- the lowest such reading in Gallup Poll history.

The previous low point for Gallup's measure of satisfaction had been 12%, recorded back in 1979, in the midst of rising prices and gas shortages when Jimmy Carter was president. Gallup has recorded a 14% satisfaction level at several points -- once in the senior Bush's administration in 1992, and several times earlier this year.

The reason for Americans' extraordinarily low level of satisfaction is straightforward: the economy. Asked in the weekend Gallup Poll to name the most important problem facing the country today, almost 7 in 10 Americans mentioned some aspect of the economy, far ahead of any other problem mentioned.