WaPo SHOCKER! Americans gloomier than at any point since the last time a Bush sat in the Oval Office

[Amerigo Vespucci]

:sarcasm:

NO, it's NOT a shocker.

Americans Losing Confidence in Current Leadership
McCain a Strong Candidate Despite Low Approval Ratings for Bush



By Jon Cohen and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 12, 2008; 6:34 PM

Americans are gloomier about the direction of the country than at any point since 1992, and Democrats have matched their biggest advantage in 25 years as the party better able to deal with the nation's main problems, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Despite more than eight in 10 now saying the country is headed in the wrong direction and growing disaffection with the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain, the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, remains competitive in a general election matchup with Sen. Barack Obama, the favorite for the Democratic nomination, and runs almost even with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Those findings indicate that McCain continues to elude some of the anger aimed at his party and at President Bush, whose own approval dipped to an all-time low in Post-ABC polling. Maintaining a separate identity will be a key to McCain's chances of winning the White House in November. Overall, Democrats enjoy a 21-point advantage over Republicans as the party best-equipped to handle the nation's problems.

As the Democratic race nears the end of its primary-caucus season, with the next round of voting set for Tuesday in West Virginia, this new national poll shows Obama with a 12-point advantage over Clinton as the preferred choice for the nomination.

More than six in 10 Democrats now say Obama is the one with the better shot at winning in November, and while Clinton retains her wide advantage as the better experienced, for the first time Obama has the edge on the question of who is the "stronger leader."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051201073.html?hpid=topnews