The right/wrong direction question isn’t a foolproof predictor, but it can provide insights into voters’ moods.
A poll published over the weekend has some bad news for President Donald Trump: Most Americans, by a wide margin, believe we’re headed in the “wrong direction.” According to an Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, just 20 percent of respondents think the United States is headed in the right direction. Conversely, a whopping 80 percent of the country says the U. S. is going down the wrong track. A record-high number of respondents in the poll gave Trump bad marks since he became president, likely due to his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Just 32 percent of Americans approve of how Trump has handled COVID-19, while 68 percent say they disapprove of his response. The poll also found that 38 percent approve of the president’s overall performance, with 61 percent saying they disapprove. The “right direction, wrong direction” poll, which is frequently used by many national polling organizations, is seen by some political pundits as a signal for how the incumbent party will fare during a presidential election year.
