Americans' satisfaction with country's direction remains low ahead of election: poll

With the U.S. presidential election less than a month away, only 28 percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

This continues the trend of Americans' low satisfaction level with the country's direction that started near the end of the George W. Bush administration in 2008 and has persisted under President Barack Obama, Gallup said.

Americans' satisfaction with the country's direction remains significantly below the historical average of 37 percent since Gallup began taking this poll in 1979.

This year's low satisfaction level was even lower than the same time in the 2012 election, when 30 percent of Americans expressed satisfaction with the country's direction.

But there are huge bipartisan differences in terms of the satisfaction with the country's direction, as Democrats are the most satisfactory.

Indeed, 49 percent of Democrats are satisfied with the country's direction, but only 24 percent of independents and 8 percent of Republicans held the same view.

The low satisfaction level could be ominous for the Democratic Party's chances of holding on to the White House in 2016, but Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton may still win the presidential race by convincing Americans of the need to continue with the course Obama has set, and that she can improve on what Obama has accomplished, Gallup said.

On the other hand, though Republican candidate Donald Trump has a large audience who agrees with his contention that the country is on the wrong track, his challenge is to convince Americans that he would be able to make things better in the future if elected, Gallup added. Endit