A political lifetime ago, Ronald Reagan’s pollster seized on this question to frame the campaign’s argument during his 1980 presidential campaign: “Is the country headed in the right direction, or is it on the wrong track?” …
In the New York Times-CBS News poll for July, 26 percent of respondents said the nation was headed in the right direction, while 69 percent felt it was on the wrong track.
But that bloc of discontent contains fewer people likely to vote against the incumbent White House party than when a Reagan pollster, Richard Wirthlin, analyzed the question. The reasons lie in increased polarization. CONT.
John Harwood, New York Times
Recent polls: Direction of the country