Slight Improvement in Confidence, but Majority Still Believe We're Going in Wrong Direction

More than 50 percent of those recently polled believe North Carolina is going in the wrong direction (Click here to see graphic). This is a slight improvement in outlook from August when just over 52 percent felt this way.

However, those in August who thought we were getting worse have not changed they're tune by saying we're getting better -- this time they're just not sure what to think. In fact, August's poll showed that 17.75 percent didn't know whether it was getting better or worse; that percentage is now up to 19.8 percent. The percentage of those who believe it's getting better actually fell slightly from 30.25 percent to 30 percent.

In our recent poll, a slightly higher percentage of African-Americans (31.1 percent) thought things were getting better than white North Carolinians (29.4 percent). A significantly larger percentage of whites think things are going in the wrong direction: 52.1 percent of whites vs. 41.9 percent of African-Americans.

Of the women polled, 53.2 percent thought things were going wrong vs. 46.1 percent of men. There was not much difference between Democrats (31.4 percent) and Republicans (30.3 percent) in believing things were moving in the right direction or in those Democrats (50.0 percent) and Republicans (49.3%) thinking things are going the wrong direction. Unaffiliated voters were, however, much more pessimistic: 55.7 percent thought things were going the wrong way.