Most Americans are pretty bullish about the state of affairs today, as a majority of people for the first time in nearly eight years says things are going well.
52 percent of respondents to a new CNN poll said things are going well, compared to 48 percent who countered that things are going badly — the most positive appraisal in that survey since January 2007.
Such findings are somewhat surprising given the growing turmoil overseas and historically low perceptions of the political process in Washington.
But the rosier outlook is driven at least partially by improving perceptions of the economy. The pollsters found that one-third of Americans believe the economy is “starting to recover,” while 41 percent said that economic conditions “have stabilized.” One in four people said that the economy is “continuing to worsen.”
Men were more positive than women about the state of the economy, as were those who lived in the Northeast or Midwest, as opposed to southern and western states.
The CNN/ORC telephone poll was taken from Nov. 21-23, with a sample size of 1,045 adults. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
