Bush is steering US in the wrong direction, say majority of Americans

THE majority of Americans are unhappy with the direction their country is taking and with the main policies of President George Bush, according to a new poll.

Despite the dissatisfaction, the race between Mr Bush and election challenger John Kerry remains a dead heat, the Los Angeles Times Poll found. Mr Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, is leading Mr Bush by two percentage points - a slight reduction on the LA Times’ last poll and a statistical dead heat between the two men.

Mr Bush appears to have weathered a number of recent storms which could have proved more damaging to his presidency - namely questions about the wisdom of war in Iraq and the intelligence upon which the invasion was based. However, the poll found 54% of the registered voters surveyed said America was moving in the wrong direction.

Some 51% said they considered the war to be a mistake and 45% said the war was still justified.

Overall, Americans were split almost exactly in half on Bush’s job performance, with 51% approving and 48% disapproving.

Asked if the situation in Iraq was worth going to war over, 51% said no and 44% said yes.

Even more worrying for the president ahead of the November election was the conclusion of three-fifths of those polled, who said the country should not “continue in the direction he set out”, and “needs to move in a new direction”.

Against this backdrop, Mr Kerry and his party will attempt to lure more voters during the Democratic Convention, which opens in Boston on Monday.

The poll found nearly three-fifths believe Mr Kerry is qualified to be president. His decision to nominate South Carolina Senator John Edwards as vice-presidential candidate appeared to have paid off, with 59% of those polled describing it as excellent or good.