US heading in the wrong direction: Poll

The right-direction number is the lowest ever recorded by the survey, which began in 2003. When other surveys are taken into account, the general level of pessimism is the worst in almost 30 years.

And it is getting worse. The 17 per cent positive reading was down from 24 per cent just since April.

Those who said the country was on the wrong track totaled 76 per cent of the people contacted in the survey, which was taken from June 12-16. That8217;s up from 71 per cent in April and 66 per cent near the end of 2007.

Six in ten of those who chose wrong track blamed the struggling economy, with gasoline process hovering above USD 4 a gallon a primary reason. 8216;Poor leadership8217; accounted for 23 per cent while 20 per cent said the war in Iraq.

Robert Ovitt, 57, who descries himself as a political independent, was among those who selected 8216;wrong track8217;.

8220;It scares me, the way things are going now,8221; said Ovitt, who is facing retirement in the next five years from his job as correctional officer.