America's Discontent

The results of a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll are out tonight. Some interesting findings:
- 34% of those polled believe the country is headed in the right direction; 51% say its on the wrong track (the right direction number is down from42% in February).
- 48% approve of the job President Bush is doing (down from 50% in February).
- 71% said Congress should not intervene in cases similar to that of Terri Schiavo.
- Pollster Bill McInturff "says the Schiavo matter had an 'anti-Midas touch.' 'Everyone who touched it, people lost respect for.' 51% said they lost respect for the media; 50% lost respect for Congress, 46% lost respect for the courts, and 35% lost respect for President Bush.
- Those surveyed disapproved of Bush's plan to add private accounts to Social Security by a 55-35% margin (51-40% in February).

[Update: Some new figures from this poll, from this morning's Wall Street Journal:
- 41% of Republicans polled oppose the "nuclear option" which would end judicial filibusters.
- only 39% of Republicans said federal action on Terri Schiavo was "the right thing to do".
- 32% of Republicans think Bush's plan to carve private accounts out of Social Security is "a bad idea".
- 48% of Republicans think Congress should pass a constitutional amendment on gay marriage; 47% oppose such a move.

The survey of 1,002 adults, conducted March 31-April 3, has a margin for error of 3.1 percentage points in either direction; the error margin for Republicans alone is 5.2 percentage points. -- April 7, 9:21 a.m.]