Nation Wants a New Direction

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com

Americans overwhelmingly want the next president to set the nation in a new direction.

Gary Langer writes for ABC News about the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll: "Seventy-nine percent of Americans say the next president should set the nation on a new course rather than following the direction in which Bush has been leading. (And two-thirds feel that way strongly.)

"For the first time this is even more than said so about Bush's father, 75 percent, the summer before he was voted out of office in 1992. And it's vastly more than the most who ever wanted a new direction after Reagan (58 percent) or Bill Clinton (48 percent).

"It holds in both parties, albeit to different degrees. Ninety-four percent of leaned Democrats, and 57 percent of leaned Republicans, say they want the next president to take a different direction than Bush's. Claims to the mantle of 'change' are likely to continue apace for the next 10 months."

Bush's job approval rating, driven down by growing economic worries along with continued opposition to the war, is now at 32 percent -- an all-time low in the Post/ABC poll.

Compare that to the 17 percent of Americans who said they agreed with the statement: "We need to keep the country moving in the direction Bush has been taking us."

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